Ursula von Rydingsvard

Wonderful exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
She uses commercially cut lengths of timber, and builds them up organically to make sculptures. The above 'mama, build me a fence' is lengths of cedar leaning against a wall. The wood has been cut, and drawn upon by graphite and chalk. 

 'Hemorrhaging Cedar', above, is a cast made from abaca paper (which comes form a rare species of banana). Von Rydingsvard makes a cedar-wood relief, then creates a cast. Hanging on the walls of the Underground Gallery, it looked like cloth; below is a photo of the cast, close-up.

A knitted coverlet, made by the artist's mother. Exhibited at the YSP. A connection to Von Rydingsvard's interest in the domestic world of women, and the peasant background she came from. There was a collection of farming, and domestic implements on show; objects she's collected over time. I loved this exhibition. A mix of grand gestures, massive sculptures, and smaller drawings. Showing a fascinating mix of materials (stitched cow's stomach, anyone?) and techniques. The exhibition's on until January 2015, so I'll be sure to visit again. It has depth, and layers which I think will lend itself to many visits. 

Geta Bratescu

I found this on Cynthia Korzekwa's blog; http://artforhousewives.wordpress.com/

 

'Artist Geta Brătescu is considered one of the most important figures in the Romanian avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s.  She studied art and literature but was forced to quit her studies. Born in 1926, she made art for years before the international art world even knew of her existence.

In 1989, when the communist regime ended in Romania, Geta’s work began being exhibited beyond her geograhical boundaries.

Geta, initially, focused on drawing but eventually experimented with many art forms. Those which intrigue me the most are from the ‘Vestigii’  (Vestiges) series. She’s taken old clothes and  fabric scraps to make collages. Geta also makes sewing machine drawings.'

These are so beautiful! Thank you Cynthia for showing me these artworks, and allowing me to meet Geta!

dorothy caldwell

A couple of Thursdays ago, I went to the Knit & Stitch Show at Harrogate. I bought plenty of supplies & equipment. And filled my eyes with the artists on display.
The loveliest by far was the textile work of Dorothy Caldwell.
She was on her stand, and I managed to catch her when she wasn't busy, and grab a quick word. She was friendly, open, happy to talk. And happy to allow me to take a photo (top) of the huge textile piece. Which can be unusual at Harrogate, where there are lots of notices saying 'No photographs please' where people are displaying their artwork. I told her I'd read the article about her in the most recent edition of 'Embroidery' magazine. She liked it, as did I; it was my first introduction to her work. I asked about her friendship with India Flint, whose blog I follow, and books I read. We both expressed our admiration for India.
Dorothy talked about the similarity between inner Australia and sub-Arctic Canada; that both were 'deserts'. An interesting concept, given that one is baking heat, and the other is biting cold.

Extremes of landscape; something that I'm unfamiliar with, living in Britain. We have a very temperate climate; a blessing really. Although the last two years have been fairly extreme in our weather; 2012 was almost continual rain throughout the whole of the summer. Then we had a very cold, very LONG winter, which seemed to go on until April 2013.
This summer has been glorious sunshine; hot, warm, and balmy. But, interestingly, we've not experienced much of spring or autumn. We've had beautiful spring blossom, and fabulous autumn colours on the trees. Yet I've missed that feeling of moving through from one season to the next; it's been more of a sudden abrupt shift. 

stitching & Klee

As I've got more sorted with the decorating, I've managed to create enough space in the spare room to get out the sewing machine, kindly lent to me by Berenice. So I've been playing with it, trying out some different stitches. My old workhorse machine, from mum, only does plain running stitch, so using Bea's Brother (?) is quite a step forward. Mindst you, coming to terms with the fiddly technology of 'lower bobbins'....what I refer to as the 'shuttle' with mum's machine!....is quite daunting. After trying to change the thread on the 'lower bobbin' and failing dramatically, I had to go and have a cuppa and some food. Upon my return, all went well!
I've been making some xmas decorations for a craft stall I'm having in early December.

Klee 'Clarification' 1932; Oil on canvas; 70.5 x 96.2

 

Another loan, from Helen, is the Paul Klee catalogue from the current Tate exhibition. I was struck by this painting, the way the marks are like stitches. Below is a close-up to show the effect more clearly. The image in the catalogue isn't as pink as shown above; I was photographing in less light than was appropriate. 

I'm not a massive Klee fan. But his story is a powerful one. His involvement with the Bauhaus, and leaving Germany as the Nazi's took power and changed the cultural agenda. He is part of world history, as well as art history. 
And the news has just told us that Doris Lessing has died.
Weird co-incidence; as I was in the loft clearing stuff away last week, I went through my boxes of books to get out my ancient copy of 'The Golden Notebook', thinking I'd like to re-read it. And Pauline lent me her copy of 'The Grass is Singing', which is on my pile to read. Again, a re-reading. And usually I'm not one who goes back to books these days, feeling that time isn't on my side to get through all the books I want to read! Exceptions are made, occasionally. And Lessing was an exceptional writer. Perhaps I'll open those pages tonight?

sketch book

A couple of weeks ago, I visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to catch the final few days of the 'FABRIC-ATION' exhibition by Yinka Shonibare MBE.
The textiles he uses are brightly coloured and made into items of clothing often worn by headless figures.
Patterns printed on the fabric relate to the idea behind each figure. A figure given the title of 'Air' had the patterns of birds printed on the fabric, similar to the sketch above. On her head, was a weather-vane, its arrow topped by the metal die-cut owl landing to catch the mouse.
The story of the fabric is fascinating; Shonibare first became aware of it in Brixton Market, and it's lineage
' was fantastically rich in meaning and metaphor, as the wax-resist batik cloth originated in Indonesia but was copied and manufactured in Holland and Manchester and sold to the African market. Hence the material exemplifies trade routes and legacies of a colonial past.'
The fabric was gorgeous; vividly coloured, and with complex patterns. Shonibare uses layers and layers of them, in different items of clothing. To see such fabrics used in the formal outfits of an C18th footman, was laugh out loud funny! 
I had a lot to think about with this exhibition, not simply the ideas presented by Shonibare.
My work with textiles over the last few years has resulted in a narrowing of my palette; whereas once I would have splashed colour around in the way it is done on these fabrics. This has affected my paintings too; I'm not using as wide a range of colour as I used to. Here I was shown how effective the mass use of colour can be. Juxtaposition and contrast can create complexity; and also, joy. My friend Ann would've loved to see this exhibition.

studio 2

This is studio A13 at Westgate Studios that I used to inhabit! When we all moved out of the Artsmill, and into the studios on Westgate in Wakefield city centre, there was a lot of work to be done on our studio spaces.
The walls needed whitewashing, and floors sanding and painting with floor paint.
One particular day, I remember sanding the floor, and creating a dust-storm! So bad it set off the fire alarm! Ian came knocking on my door to tell me. I had no idea, the noise of the sander obliterated the alarm's noise.
Happy days!

London, Nancy Spero at the Serpentine Gallery

Yesterday I went to London for the day to visit the Serpentine Gallery where an exhibition of Nancy Spero's work is currently being shown. Trust me to pick the hottest day of the year so far! As I decided to walk from King's Cross down to Hyde Park (and then walk back again afterwards) I was walking in hot sun, amongst busy streets, with traffic and bodies adding to the temperatures. Ah well; once in Hyde Park, the greenery created a cooller space.
The exhibition has come from the Centre Pompidou in France. As this is a much bigger gallery than the Serpentine, I expect that a selection has had to be made, from that larger show.

In the entrance was a 3D work, 'Maypole', which is a central pole from which hang flat aluminium heads, faces, all in expressions of pain and agony. This was quite different from the rest of the work, which was all on paper. Spero is quoted as saying 'I was working exclusively on paper; part of my resistance as an artist in the 'War Series' was a decision not to work any more on canvas. I shifted completely to work on paper.' The 'War Series' dates back to the 1960's.

I remember as an art student in the 1980's being involved in discussions about the uses of materials, and how our personal choices of materials expressed particular ideologies. I explored art history wearing feminist spectacles, aware that what I was taught was the history of 'dead, white men' of famous artists. It seems that questions of 'what materials?' nowadays, is more concerned with recycled, and environmentally harmless materials. I think these issues would not be addressed without feminist artists from the 1980's asking related questions. Personally, I now use canvas and oils; as well as other materials.

Spero's paper work is flawed, imperfect. Lines are blurry; prints are double-imaged. It has a 'home-made' quality, though this is definately not amateur! There is a fierce intelligence here; though Spero is creating her own iconography, and this is not always obvious, or easy to discern. Even as an artist, who is a feminist, and who has familiarity with some of the goddess-images she uses, I found myself adrift at times.

'Azure' (2002) works particularly well, I thought. It is beautiful; rich in colour and imagery; multi-layered (literally as well as in meaning); using images from the ancient, and the modern world.

There are figures that viewers will be familiar with; Egyptian goddesses, Babylonian goddesses; Greek images (from vases?); the styles and figures are 'readable'. We know where we are. There are images from modern pornography, synchronised and in opposition to the ancient images on show. Here again are images we have become familiar with. Spero re-produces; re-presents; re-images for us. I need to go back and re-read my Mary Daly!

Spero is known for the movement in her work; there are running women, naked and free. Blurred and repeated images emphasise this movement, creating an almost film-strip quality.

'Azure' is a massive piece. In the catalogue it says it is 39 panels, of various dimensions. All these are displayed in the central space of the Serpentine Gallery. I needed to sit with them, and look, and think about them. There were no seats though, so I ended up sitting on the gallery floor. Not ideal when the amount of work meant that they were placed 4 of 5 panels deep, on the wall. Works on paper bring particular problems for curators; they need low light levels to be viewed in so they are protected. With many of the panels high up on the walls, and low light levels to view them with, I found it a bit of a struggle to see the higher placed panels. Which was a shame, as sitting on the floor, trying to look at the 'whole' thing, I was struck by the colours and textures, and could see more clearly where Spero had placed her repeat prints.

I didn't like 'Codex Artaud'. Not being a French speaker or reader, I couldn't make any sense of the words, and the visual patterns were created using text. With a lot of white space. It seemed very much of its time (the 1970's). As this was an exhibition celebrating Spero's work and life, then it made sense to include it. But for me it lacked the richness and depth of her later work, such as 'Azure'.