Cath Bond - Art Online

The Art of Stitch Exhibition

Wednesday, 24 May, 2006 - 17:01

George and I just visited the Art of Stitch exhibion at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol. It was really inspiring, and a completely different experience to our usual textile exhibition visits. We were viewing textiles as art (in a renowned art gallery) in contrast to viewing textiles as craft in a craft-associated gallery space.

I particularly liked this piece of work - found materials constructed into a piece. It reminded me of attics and scraps washed up on a shoreline. Old suitcases evoke such strong memories as well. They have a story to tell.
Some of the pieces had so much work involved in them. I liked the use of mixed media, especially stitch with plastic bags as a background.

George was unsure about how to react to an embroidered picture with bits of thread left unfinished. I really like the way that threads are left, it makes a number of statements. There are no rules about tying off the thread. The artist isn't concerned with the thread being tied in, it adds to the impressionistic style of the piece for threads to get caught and not lie neatly on the fabric. The thread is used as a sketching tool, in the same way that a pencil sketch may have old marks, thumb prints, an unfinished, throw-away quality.
We talked about the difference between art and craft. I was thinking that art makes statements, it sometimes break boundaries, pushes things further out in the use of the medium, take the techniques to the different places to create juxtapositions, comments. It either does this through the composition, the material or even the type of stitch. One piece was a kind of cross stitch of pornographic magazine adverts. A total clash of subject matter and the "normal" use of this technique.
One piece I really liked was by Lucy Smethurst, specifically because I'm really enjoying circles and dots at the moment.

The piece reminds me of contemporary interior design patterns - I liked the use of circles added, covered with different materials.
George and I also liked the piece which was a body print with machine embroidery added to give the effect of flesh, sinews, blood etc. Amazing how stitch can create that kind of effect.
We both wished that we could touch some of the pieces, because they had such a tactile quality. They called out to be touched. Also, we couldn't take photos to use afterwards as ideas. Is this another difference between art and craft? With craft, everything is knowledge to be shared and passed on, no idea is precious. In fact ideas are important in terms of them being passed down. But with art it's about individuality, intellectual property, ownership, expression of concepts, commentary on society or on self.

Author: cath
Categories: art of stitch, textiles, craft, art,
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