ART 'N ' AB ART - Continuum - A Salthouse Church Exhibition

 

Its a couple of years since Anglia Textile Works last had an exhibition at Salthouse Church, and I remember the art on show left a huge impression on me at the time. Coming just a few weeks since the rather excellent Stains & Traces exhibition, similarly focused on using textiles as a medium for feeling and self expression. Continuum is a group of female creatives, each with a recognisibly distinct approach to their medium, that maintains that tricky balance of being both adventurous and inspiring. Its also so easy to see how some of them have progressed and finessed their artistic styles in recent years. I'm certainly finding this artistic area hugely exciting to engage with as a spectator and as an artist. There is art here that frequently surpasses traditional paint on canvas. I come away with the bounce of a new fervour to approach my own creative projects in fresher exploratory avenues.

Niki Chandler

An artist whose whose work has becomes more impactful and controlled. The use of coloured gauzes in layering or printing continues, but its one large piece of quilting, a shimmering hanging of tones of blue that evokes seascapes. Their is also a sense of things visibly shifting uneasily, it is also apparently a meditation on her mothers dementia. 

Heidi McEvoy-Swift

A textile artist who also does work making theatre costume, she utilises this as source for thefabrics she uses in a variety of mediums, patchwork and sculptural forms. Some strikingly effective small sculptures made from leaves were a stand out for me here.

Annette Morgan

Annette employs quilting techniques in a wide range of richly dense colourings. Often hand printed fabrics of designs from sketch books, sewn and pleated to give the finished piece a sort of aged layering patina. 

Marian Murphy

A focus on forms hanging over-layered and textural bodies suspended in space. Some very accomplished hand work an emphasis on semi scupltural reliefs.  

Hannah Rae

Densely textured and sewn hangings, also ordinary items concealed beneath an intricate covering of coloured threads and stitches. Like many textile artists she is exploring the mark making potential of the hand or machined stitch, as a means of expression.

  

Claire Spender

Another artist utilising the hand sewn and textural qualities in a collage or semi sculptural manner. Its like free hand drawing but in threads and rough fabrics.

  

Cherry Vernon-Harcourt

A minimalist landscape aesthetic plane, applied here with fabric and threads. The use of linen often layered over laid on items, or scumbled with colour stains, and fine twisted lines of many coloured threads which offer us a shimmering moving horizon point. Really refined skills on show here.

Irena Wilmott

A really interesting application of felted textiles as wrappings and coverings of often recognisible items. As though something alien and intrusive has taken them over and is concealing and absorbing their essence. Genuinely unsettling and fascinating work.

 

CARROT REVIEW - 7/8