Drawing Tuesday: African textiles at the Brunei Gallery

 Drawing Tuesday  last week was the fantastic African  textiles  at the Brunei Gallery , SOAS. I bought a copy of HALI  magazine which includes an article  on the exhibition  ( along with  many other delicious items ) but resisted the book at £50 

So much to choose from , do look at Margaret Cooters blogpost 

 I   settled for copying some of the amulet  designs on this talismanic cloth

And then I couldn't resist  these wonderful  hats from Camaroon

Transient: Prism at Hoxton Arches

Mary Gray ' River Ripples' 

After sketching  at the Museum of London , Margaret, Jo and I  continued by bus to Hoxton Arches to see the latest 'Prism' exhibition 'Transient'. I last saw an exhibition of their work in 2014  at the Mall Galleries and then at Knit and Stitch  and before that in 2011   and  in comparison to the excitement I've felt before about their work I was  a bit underwhelmed.   The  combination of the exhibiting space which felt a bit gloomy and being away from the centre  of town  and therefore   few people  didn't help  but it was  probably more to do with my own tastes having changed and developed. 

Having said that there were some pieces of work I really liked, no surprise that these were mainly ones that  chimed with my own work and interests.  

I loved  how Mary Gray had captured the watery qualities in her piece ( and the  shibori gathering added an extra dimension, definitely something to  experiment with ) 

Ali Brown 'Amulet' 

Ali Brown has recently graduated from an MA in ceramics ( having switched from a textile course)  and her work was stunning, the textures imprinted from fabrics, the use of unusual materials. Amulets are  something that interests me a lot and  having done ceramics in the past ( I have a box full of tiny thumb pots in the garage beside those that Ian has chosen to put in the lounge) so these pieces really resonated with me.  I look forward to seeing what she does next. 

Julianne Long 'Erosion'

 I had a chat with Julianne about her work based on long term observations of weathering of a large piece of timber on a beach. I can relate to that  with my work on breakwaters! Her sister had sent her small shards of  timber as they disintegrated  and she'd  displayed them with embroidered rubbings of the larger timber.   Having  been reminded of the joys of 'frottage'  when at Lund Studios , it makes me want to rush back to Birchington armed with crayons and colour catchers ! 

Jeryl Church 

With more of an interest in 'artists books' and book structures , I was intrigued  by this 'Tunnel' in dyed and burnt organdie ( reminding me of the telescopic  paper mode of the Thames Tunnel  in the Museum of London (Docklands )

This sculptural 'hat'  made of electric cables combined  with  a much larger drawing of the sculpture was interesting, the  change of scale  and medium making you look more  closely  

Katherine Paton- King 

Anita Bruce 'Loss' 

My favourite and the exhibit with most meaning for me was 'Loss' by Anita Bruce. Based on the IUCN Red list of extinct  and Critically Endangered birds, she had embroidered the names of these on varying weights of  black and grey  fabrics ( including organza). What made it for me is that ,for once, the 'unconscious side' of the back of the stitching was integral to  the work, text  losing meaning, turning into marks. 

 During my botanical career I worked mainly on threatened species and was  a member  of several specialist groups of the IUCN  so this work carries even more significance for me.  

Contemporary Collage Week 5 : Decoupage

This week  in Contemporary Collage   we were looking at 'decoupage'  moving from making collage on flat surfaces to decorating an object. Artists we looked at included: Rauschenberg; Matthew Jackson; Peter Blake, Raschid Jackson: Grayson Perry; Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell 

We were asked to bring in something  that didn't mind collaging over, cutting up or adding to. I found this pink card suitcase in the childrens section of a charity shop and  having grand ideas  about  making a Shrine   for Lost Earrings , I also brought in a selection of the small  boxes I'd collected over the years when purchasing earrings. 

Apart from the usual losses/ breakages , I had a purse of  favourite earrings lost/stolen from my rucksack when left in the lobby of a hotel in Athens in 2002 . Some of them I had remade  but others were irreplacable  ( incuding some I'd bought in  Seraphos just days before) .  Since then I only take earrings on holiday that I wouldn't mind losing too much ( I mainly wear dichroic glass ones)

I   even made a  Journal Quilt   containing fabric I printed using scans of  earrings 

and have been meaning to make  an amulet against lost earrings for quite some years ( pictures below are from the excellent book on the subject by Sheila Paine. ) 

I'd gone through magazines cutting out anything to do with jewelry  or red and pink in colour  and had a fine time choosing strange images to stick on

I then found a picture of theatre boxes  from an old V&A members magazine  to  stuck  inside  and  decided to leave it as it was  ( with the addition of a Greek God ). Not so much shrine as suitcase theatre. A bit obvious  but working in 3D is still outside my comfort zone.  

 Unlike Judith  who  with her  architecture/ sculpture  background produced  this amazing structure  ( particularly like the internal space and reflections )

After lunch I turned my attentions to all the little boxes ( reminded by Simon of the boxes of Susan Hiller) 

I used scraps of fabric, sequin waste and foil; bits of braid and ribbon; old stamps :  quirky illustrations from magazines; fold out strips of paper.  As usual time passed too quickly and I'm just staring to explore the possibilities of combining them , stacking them , putting them together.  Some of them  might still end up as miniature pocket shrines.   

 I'll miss the 'bricollage' session next week as I'll  be  in Rydal   but Simon suggested I join in spirit  when I go on walks making  some assemblages  and taking photos of them.

Sketching Amulets at British Museum

  After a couple of weeks of endlessly moving boxes around and weekends dismantling a wardrobe and bookshelves, it was time to get out the house and to finally get round to  meeting up with Margaret Cooter et al sketching in museums. The destination this week was the Islamic Gallery in the British Museum - the streets were solid with buses due to  Kingsway being closed after the fire last week and it took 20 minutes queuing to get in the building (lots of foreign student groups) so I was a few minutes late. So much gorgeous subject matter  to choose from -  I was sorely tempted by the glass but  got fascinated by the case of amulets including this fabulous cloth covered skull ( love those ears!) . 4 of us met up in the  Galley Café to look at each others drawings and  discuss favourite sketching implements ( a visit to Cornelissens  was a must). It was such a pleasure to  be with like-minded people after a few weeks home alone.

 There were several examples of clothing showing a variety of forms both in the gallery itself and in the section on 'life and death' in the main part of the museum

 I didn't get round to drawing this lovely drum-like  discs containing scared texts finely embroidered around the edges -  I had a preference for the more roughly hewn.

  The necklace above  had alum to  heal bleeding and prevent fires and a tortoise shell for longevity ( but not for the tortoise....)

 This Turkish amulet for a bellwether sheep  was fun  - loved the exuberant tassels and the crude stitching on the leather triangles. As it happens I have some  rusty sheep/goat bells at home in the garden bought in  a very non-touristy market in Turkey in  1990's  - each one has a different tone.

Travelling in  Greece, Turkey,  Tunisia, Iran and Syria , I've long had an interest in amulets and talismen. My copy of Sheila Paine's book is much thumbed even if she did mistake  rue for chickpeas, but then I did myself initially.  The photo above was of the  windscreen of the taxi we had in Syria in 2004 winding up a very narrow steep track to Saladin's castle  I'd wished he's had rather fewer and a better view! You can see how close we were to the taxi in front.

I've been thinking for a while of revisiting my idea of amulets against lost earrings. The journal quilt above I made in 2004  taking photo's of earrings and printing them on fabric combined with real examples attached to 3d  Flying Geese ( perhaps they could be found trapped in the folds...)
I think a visit to Pitt Rivers is long overdue.