Six Branch is a collaboration between students of Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, and the Women in Hebron cooperative in Palestine. It is a platform for cultural exchange through textile design, celebrating traditional embroidery skills passed from generation to generation.
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Photography by Mark Blower for the Camden Arts Centre.
What universal issues emerge from Duro Olowu’s curation of Making & Unmaking? ‘Let Me Tell You a Story’ will draw out key elements highlighted in the exhibition, including cultural appropriation, cultural identity, textiles and protest, collecting, collections and bricolage, and gender stereotypes. Each week, participants will cover two distinct areas in order to understand the wider meaning of the works included in the exhibition. In the final seminar, participants will have an opportunity to take part in a ‘show and tell’ session, where they deconstruct a treasured object from their own collection.
McNulty and Weston take polar opposite positions in terms of ‘making’ and ‘un-making’:
McNulty is an acknowledged master of making – she understands construction and the measures needed to create objects.
Weston uses fashion and textiles to deconstruct meta-themes that reflect a wider society – she picks at the seams to understand the role of fashion, craft and photography within the cultural landscape.
A wooden print block (unknown year) and fabrics from Yinka Shonibare's installations 'The Victorian Philanthropist's Parlour' and 'Nelson's Ship in a Bottle'.
Over the weeks of August, myself and Dr Sian have been leading seminars at the Camden Arts Centre. We were overwhelmed with the engagement of the participants, unafraid to discuss and impressive grasp of the content.
Thank you Camden Arts Centre for the invitation, we enjoyed the exhibition greatly.
Tie dyed rope piece
After finishing the second Innovation Project with the Topshop print design team at the beginning of April, myself and fellow print designer Elizabeth Clay visited the Fashion and Textiles Museum in Bermondsey for a textile nerd-out.
We just caught the final days of Art Textiles; a retrospective of luxurious art textiles in silk, velvet, cotton and felted wool by internationally collected designer Marian Clayden. The exhibition celebrates the influence of a British-born artist who transformed psychedelic tie-dyed fabrics into a million-dollar fashion business in the United States.
stencils used as part of the tie dye process achieved soft, beautiful motifs.
Tie dye is having quite the moment, having sampled it for Victoria, Victoria Beckham last year and have been exploring shibori techniques for a upcoming Couture Collection (more on this will be revealed once the show has happened).
This was a great show, demonstrating the productive and highly skilled work Clayden created. She demonstrated a high level of control on what can be a very difficult to predict process.
Another inspired curatorial programming from the museum, and very much looking forward to the upcoming Missoni exhibition opening this week.
Tactus (No 1), James Bulley, 2015
The Tactus series is an investigation into direct communicative artworks for the blind and visual impaired. The textile based scores are haptic sound generating surfaces that celebrate the braille music notation system of Louis Braille and the graphic scores of Cornelius Cardew. Tactus explores the interweaving of the auditory and tactile, and offers a questioning of the nature of art objects and their presentation in galleries and museums.
The series began in 2011 as a result of an award from the Leverhulme foundation and a residency at London Printworks Trust. A new wall-mounted installation of Tactus has been commissioned by Crafts Council UK and will be exhibited at the Kaunas Biennial, 2015. I worked with James on both Score Study II and the newest incarnation, exploring the possibilities and needs required to create a textile print in legible Braille and additional tactile qualities.
Tactus (No 1), James Bulley. Private View Sonic Pattern exhibition 18 Sept 2015
The Kaunas Biennial’s partner, Crafts Council (UK), has explored the impact of new technologies on contemporary art by organising an international seminar and curating an exhibition called Sonic Pattern, in which interdisciplinary sound, video and visual art projects are presented. The installation “Dataflags” by Fabio Lattanzi Antinori, recently seen in the V&A Museum, and James Bulley’s project „Tactus“, creating experiences of Braille via sound, engages with the audiences; connections of images and sound were explored by David Littler, Knyttan and Alex Mclean’s live performances as well.
The exhibition is open to the public now, following the opening on the 18 September as part of the Kaunas Biennial at Mykolas Žilinskas Art Gallery, Lithuania until 1 January 2016.
