Fashionable figures

Until last week I had never really visited Rome - only ever passed through.  By chance when I did visit, the Palazzo Borghese it just happened to have a temporary exhibition on with a textile theme. Couture/Sculpture was a display of 65 stunning gowns and outfits set between the statues and the paintings.  Text was sparse so you could only look and admire.  The whole exhibition was the work of Tunisian born couturier and shoe designer, Azzedine Alaia.  

I am not certain any of the items could have been worn - the effect appeared to be emphasise the sculptural and the dresses had the tiniest of waists.  With all the other paintings and sculpture, it was difficult to know what to look at first - the art (especially Bernini), the architecture, the dresses.  It seemed that I failed to pay attention to everything as I missed the stairs up to the first floor - just too many distractions.

The  photographs I took show just some of the items on display, and a little of the permanent collection too.  The painting behind this gown is a Caravaggio - "St Jerome Writing".  Caravaggio is of course known for his use of light, and equally the dresses were enhanced by the way they were lit emphasising the curves and texture of the fabrics.

These next two reminded me of the recent Alexander McQueen exhibition at the V&A.  One making use of what appears to be a whole alligator and the other with what appears to be suede and horse hair.

In the image above, I tried to capture the shadow, which added an extra dimension to the display.

These next two seemed particularly sculptural and elegant.

And lastly one of my favourites, with its intricate beadwork - which sadly I could not pick out, with only my camera phone at hand.

Sadly the exhibition has now closed - it finished the day after we visited.  

While in Rome I threw a coin in the newly renovated Trevi Fountain, and if the legend is correct I will get back to for another visit some time.  Next time I will pay more attention and ensure I visit the upstairs of any galleries I visit.

Indian fabric - craftsmanship and splendour

The Fabric of India was an exhibition I visited on the same day as I visited Shoes: Pleasure and Pain (see last week's blog) at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  Of the two I have to say I enjoyed this one the most - although both were worth a visit.

The Fabric of India looked at Indian textiles from a wide range of viewpoints - craftsmanship, historical, contemporary, status, political and social issues.  It was also the exhibition where I learnt that for the ancient Greeks and Babylonians, the word 'cotton' was synonymous with India.

The entrance includes a huge seventeenth century "summer carpet" flanked with two mannequins dressed in very contemporary versions of Indian fashion.  It was a good introduction to an exhibition that looked at such a historically diverse subject.

In the next section, which was large and spacious, the exhibition concentrated on the craftsmanship behind textile production - growing, weaving, dyeing, printing, embroidery.  I liked the fact that they showed family businesses still producing cloth or textile products - highlighting the craftsmen (and women) as well as the techniques and products themselves.  

There were sections that showed courtly splendour, textiles with sacred attributes, global trade, and contemporary designs.  It was also good to see that they included a section about how Britain exploited the trade, to the point that the Indian textile tradition was severely damaged - a side of textile history that in the past might have been ignored.  

There were some very beautiful pieces and fascinating items on display.  A favourite of mine was the embroidered map shawl, dating from the 19th century.  Even the exhibition graphics, which included stitched words, were worth admiring.

After a visit to the shoe exhibition in the morning this was a big exhibition to take on.  If I get the chance I would love to go back.  Next time I would take my notebook.  

Again no photographs so the images for the blog are from the V&A's permanent collection of South Asian textiles.  The exhibition continues until 10 January 2016.

Shoes - a pleasurable experience but not without some pain

Any textile artist would probably tell you that the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London is one of their favourite museums in the capital because of its permanent collection which includes a vast number of textile pieces, but also because of its focus on textiles for many of its temporary exhibitions.  Perhaps Shoes: Pleasure and Pain is not really a textile exhibition per se, but it certainly included a lot of textile items.

The categories of display in the lower galleries included transformation, status and seduction.  One display focused on shoes supposed to have magical properties to transform the wearer - like a crystal slipper for Cinderella.  The "status" section shoes that were intended to display wealth or the ability to have so little need for walking you could wear shoes that were completely impractical. The "seductive" shoes included sexy heels and fetish wear.  This was certainly a very broad display and anyone interested in shoes from a social, historical or design perspective would find plenty of interest.

Unfortunately this downstairs section of the exhibition was the most crowded area and with people trying to peer at the displays it made the viewing experience not as pleasurable as it could have been.  This was for me the "pain" of the exhibition but certainly not as painful as I imagine some of the shoes might have been. 

In the more airy upper gallery the focus was on the creation of shoes - showing how a shoe is designed and developed. There was also a collection about shoe collectors.  It was interesting to see the range of shoes that people collected and also how some displayed them like art objects and others kept them safely in boxes.  Some collectors wore shoes their collections while others just kept them as objects of beauty.

There were some audio visual displays including filmed interviews with shoe designers talking about inspiration and working practices which wss worth watching. Other imagery around the walls showed shoes being made - step by step.

This was an interesting exhibition and one I would have liked more with a little more space.  There was a warning at the entrance to leave coats in the cloakroom and it would have been wise words to heed.  

Unfortunately no photography allowed in the temporary exhibition, so the shoe image at the top of this blog is from the permanent collection - of which there are several in the costume display.

This exhibition at the V&A continues until 31 January 2016.  If you combine it with the Fabric of India exhibition you may want to save longer for this much bigger exhibition, of which I will say more in my next blog.

Amazing materials - combined and destroyed

Although my link between art and textiles is rather tenuous this week, I felt after seeing the amazing Ai Weiwei exhibition this week I could not avoid giving it a mention.  In fact the strongest link was the chair that was set beneath the trees in the Royal Academy courtyard.  This chair was not of course made of a textile, not even leather - it was carved from marble.  A marble chair is not good - especially on a winter's day.  It is rather cold.  In fact in this photo I seem to have the expression of someone on a marble chair, while my friend Melinda looks much more comfortable.

This was not the only chair in the exhibition as Ai Weiwei son's stroller also made  an appearance - this too was made of marble and set surrounded by a marble lawn.  The creases in the "fabric" looked so real.  It reminded us of a piece of work made by fellow E.A.S.T member, Susan Canfield for our "Making a point!"

If there was a central theme surrounding the Ai Weiwei exhibition it was "materials".  Whether he was protesting about the tragedy of the Shanghai earthquake or "celebrating" the authorities decision to destroy his artists' community building, or even to explore Chinese culture through its craftsmen and women, the materials used were the key to interpretation.  He combined antique furniture with pieces of temple, he mixed rubble with furniture, he used straightened rebars, he compressed tea into a metre cube.

He also used destruction in a creative way - famously breaking a Ming vase or grinding neolithic pots to dust.  Or did he?

One of my favourite pieces was a material of a different kind - a crystal cube, a metre cube.  As people passed by it reflected and fractured, and although I realise there must be a scientific explanation for its properties, it felt as if it was a magic trick - cutting someone in half.

Of course there is much more to this exhibition than the use of materials and many more pieces on display.  It was thought provoking, sometimes challenging and moving.  I came away having a great respect for the bravery of the artist, and other artists who challenge the system.  There were also items that were just amazing in their construction like the bicycle chandelier.   

This is an exhibition I would thoroughly recommend - it is on until 13 December 2015 at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

Picking up another thread

The lady next to me picked a loose thread from my sleeve and said "you are going to get a letter".  It is not a saying I had ever heard before so I asked where it came from.  She said it was something her mother said and that her mother was from Yorkshire so perhaps it was a Yorkshire saying.  The thread she found was not very long but apparently if it had been a long thread it would have been a long letter.

It made me wonder about other sayings and traditions there are about threads, so I turned to the internet.

According to one source a loose piece of thread on your clothing also helos those seeking the name of their future love - drop the thread on the floor and see what initial it spells.  

Another source advices tying a thread around the finger of your left hand to help to remember something.  Tying a piece of thread around your little finger is supposed to stop a nose bleed and apparently tying a thread three times around a finger before dropping it to the ground is supposed to remove warts.  

A couple of sources said that if you are sewing and your thread tangles and forms into knots, someone is talking about you, but another source said that a knotted thread indicates an argument.  On the Mediterranean if a thread knots the person whose clothes are being mended will have prosperity and wealth.  

Apparently it is also bad luck to sew clothing while someone is wearing the item unless the person wearing the clothes holds a thread in their mouth.  If however you inadvertently sew something to your own clothes, the number of stitches you make is supposed to indicate the number of lies that will be told about you.

Whilst all these sayings could just be seen as a bit of fun, what I find interesting is the fact that they have get passed down the generations.  Of course we never know where it started and by whom.

Did I receive a letter?  I am still waiting.

Autumn inspiration

It is not often I find the drive to work a thing of beauty but today, and for the last week or so, it has been almost a joy to drive along tree lined A roads - a riot of greens, yellows, reds, browns, etc. 

A couple of years ago when creating a catalogue for our textile group I asked the E.A.S.T members what their favourite season was - autumn came out on top.  That was not to say that some members did not have other favourite seasons, because each season has it's special pleasures.  It is one of the reasons that although we may moan about the weather in the UK, its constant change is actually one of its assets.

It is for this reason that I thought I would add to last week's blog with some more images of my recent experiments in leaf printing.

First we put our leaves on one half of a piece of vinegar/water soaked silk (or wool) fabric.  Tannin rich leaves work best.  Also there are some pieces of red onion skin here.  The other half of the fabric is then folded over making a sort of "leaf sandwich"

Then the fabric was wrapped really tightly around some rusted tin - I had a spoke from a wheelbarrow but most of the group used tin cans that had been left to rust a little in water.  It also had to be tied very tightly.

The wrapped fabric is then steamed or put into boiling water for an hour or two.  

Some of our fabric was also soaked in a copper water mix as an alternative mordant.

And we also tried techniques out using paper instead of fabric - it even worked for newspaper.

Anyone wanting to learn more about such techniques, might be interested in a celebration of ethical and natural textile practices being organised by "From the Earth".  In May 2016 there will be a whole host of workshops being run through Art Van Go, and an exhibition which is open for applications now (until January 2016) will be held in June 2016.

Following Threads

The title of the next E.A.S.T (East Anglian Stitched Textile) exhibition is Following a Thread.  I am planning on a body of work inspired by a set of paintings at the National Gallery, but I started out following a very different "thread".

The paintings tell the story of Patient Griselda, a poor country girl who marries a rich marquis, first published in the fourteenth century.  I had researched the paintings as part of an art history course and the more I learnt about the panels, the more there was to find out.  It was not just the narrative illustrated that intrigued but the possibility the panels were commissioned by a woman.  It was a rare thing for a woman to commission art during the Renaissance but not impossible.

However this was not the original inspiration for my E.A.S.T work which began with the story of Elizabeth Blackwell and her Curious Herbal.  My research into Elizabeth Blackwell (1707-1758) had started as a paper I presented at the Foundling Museum last year.  Blackwell engraved all the illustrations as well as all the text.  Her text referred to several sources and it was through this research I came across another botanical illustrator, incidentally yet another remarkable woman. Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) who travelled to Surinam, Africa with her daughter in the 17th and 18th centuries.  Her paintings included not only fantastic plants but insects as well.  Her illustrations were often used as embroidery designs.  Blackwell included some insects in a few of her engravings, perhaps inspired by Merian.

My Blackwell research was also following on from the stories of three remarkable women that lived during WWI which I had used for our last E.A.S.T exhibition, Between the Lines.  One of these WWI women (Mrs Grieve) used her herbal knowledge during the war when commercial medicines were in short supply. I was also learning about herbs during regular visits to the walled garden at Cressing Temple Medieval Barns with a local herbal interest group so it seemed a natural course to combine all these herbal threads.

I read up on herbal dyeing both from a practical and historical point of view and it seemed as if things were coming together. I visited Chelsea Physic Garden, where Blackwell had drawn many of her illustrations and I made a visit to the RHS Lindley Library.  This was a trip organised by the Friends of Thomas Coram and included talks where I learnt more about the printing of herbals and the art of botanical prints.

Despite the fact that I had followed this thread of herbals and herbalists, I was more and more drawn in what seemed a different direction towards the story of the paintings.  Eventually I decided to change to this different source of inspiration, though I worried I had no where to use my extensive herbal research.

Then last weekend E.A.S.T member Jenny, gave us a workshop in how to use leaves to print on fabric and paper (see below).  I realised here was a way my research on the herbals could be linked with the paintings.  I need to find a way of contrasting Griselda's simple country origins with her later wealth and the leaf printing has started me on a train of thought that may provide the solution.

Coincidentally the workshop took place at Braintree Museum, where there is a gallery named after the naturalist John Ray (1627-1705).  Ray was born in nearby Black Notley, Essex. He was a philosopher and scholar.  He was also one of the sources of information Blackwell used for her Curious Herbal. It seemed like pair of threads coming together.

Another dilemma I had was about how to represent Griselda's new found riches and a visit to the aetelier's Hand and Lock, has given me some ideas in that direction.  That visit was combined with a trip to the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace in London, and an exhibition called Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden (see below). Amongst the paintings and textiles (woven tapestry and embroidery - see below), I was delighted to recognise works by Maria Sibylla Merian, which I had only previously seen in reproduction.  Perhaps that counts as another linking thread?

I now feel my threads of research are coming together - linking my interests in herbs and natural dyes, remarkable women, fourteenth century paintings and hopefully even include a reference to my foundling research.