E.A.S.T at Teddington

It is always interesting to see old work in a new venue, and sometimes it is the limitations of the venue that means work has to be displayed differently.  This is the case for my own work currently part of the E.A.S.T group exhibition, Between the Lines at the Landmark Arts Centre in Teddington. Previously my work had been hung against a wall, but this was not so easily done at this particular venue.  The exhibiting area is a vast space for all our work, being a decommissioned church - a huge one at that, but a beautiful space for an exhibition that is fundamentally about remembrance. My friend Melinda kindly supplied a pole, and the work was very carefully displayed by another friend Susan.  On Tuesday it was my first opportunity to see the exhibition in its new setting as Susan, Carol and myself were booked for a talk about our work at the gallery.

My piece, Treasure, Hope and Friendship, relates to three women who in small ways made a big difference to the lives of many during WW1.  Lady Smith-Dorrien set up a charity (The Lady Smith-Dorrien Hospital Bag Fund) to make small drawstring bags - essential repositories officially for personal documents that had been getting lost in the hospital stations.  The bags also became places for wounded soldiers to hold "treasures" - a bible, a gift from home, a letter, a photo even tiny teddy bears.  My bags, displayed in a line, reference the fact that it was a line of work that made the charity successful - from stitcher to a collection point, then transported and distributed to the various hospital ships and stations.

The Times newspaper frequently reported on the bags - how plain ones got lost so they had to be replaced (hopefully by a floral one, made from old curtaining), how some were embroidered with messages of hope, how men traumatised by war found comfort in their own personal treasures safely held together in a simple cotton bag.

The other two women I researched were Lena Ashwell, actress, who brought Shakespeare and other theatre to the Front Line, and Maud Grieve, herbalist.  When supplies were short people once again returned to old remedies and Mrs Grieve was able to advise through leaflets and training on how to safely use herbal medicines.  Consequently most bags has an embroidered herb, with text explaining its medicinal use and a quote from Shakespeare.

Landmark Arts Centre is a lovely venue with lovely staff and it has been a pleasure to work with them.  On Sunday (26 June 2016) it is the Teddington Fair and alongside E.A.S.T are running drop in workshops (free from noon until 4pm) under the title Ready, Steady, Stitch - although we have some paper activities too.  The exhibition will be open to view while we are there - and stays until 10 July 2016.

Bags of Treasure, Hope and Friendship

As a change from writing about exhibitions I have visited, I thought today I would write a little bit about my own work that has been part of the E.A.S.T (East Anglian Stitch Textiles) exhibition Between the Lines.  The exhibition, which was launched in 2014, and has at least one further airing in 2016, was a response to the commemoration of WW1.  Not unusually for me, I looked at the role of women during the war.

My research led me to a project I had not heard of previously, that of the Lady Smith-Dorrien Hospital Bag Fund.  Personnel coming into the hospitals and clearing stations were losing their personal belongings as well as their military papers and when Lady Smith-Dorrien (1881-1951) heard about this she created a practical solution by supplying every casualty with a small drawstring bag.

What particularly interested me was the reaction of the men when on receiving a plain calico bag, whilst another received a patterned one.  As the Times reported in 1917, one wounded man grumbled because his companion had a flowered bag, "...a bag with roses on it", but was then placated when he was offered an even more brilliantly coloured one (The Times (Issue 41568), 28 August 1917, p.9).  It made all the difference to have something that not only reminded them of the comfort of home, but was also "cheering after the drabness of khaki everywhere".

It was not just the recipients who enjoyed pattern and colour on the bags - the same report from The Times tells of elderly ladies who could not help themselves but embroider the bags. Individualisation was their way of expressing their shared humanity and in a way sending a message between strangers who although might never meet were joined by a cause to survive and beat the enemy.

During my research I also looked into some of the items that might have been kept in the bags - letters, postcards, bibles, good luck charms, a tiny teddy.  Stuck away from home, cold, frightened, bored for long periods - such things might have been the only bit of joy in what must have been a living hell.

I also looked at two other women whose work helped the war effort - Lena Ashwell and Maud Grieve.  Lena Ashwell (1872-1957) was a British actress and manager who organised companies of actors, singers and entertainers to France.  She wrote how she was pleased to see the enthusiasm ordinary soldiers had for high culture, such as Shakespeare.  Maud Grieve (1858-1951) organised the publishing of pamphlets on the subject of herb cultivation and use - later published as A Modern Herbal.  With pharmaceutical supplies limited both at home and on the front, the lost art of herbal medicine became popular again.

The bags I made were created to the pattern as described in The Times, and each one was made of either plain or part plain/part patterned fabric.  Each of the patterned bags has a piece of Shakespeare that relates to a herb, and this herb is then also embroidered on the bag.  The bags were strung together like a production line when on display, and nestled among them a tiny teddy which I had started to make many years ago, but never finished until now.

Details of Between the Lines next airing in 2016 will be available on the E.A.S.T website in due course.