Inspirational Plus - man/body/fiber

Today sees the release of Inspirational Plus - man/body/fiber 6 artists/8 questions The artists: Anthony Stevens, Cos Ahmet, James Fox, Joe Lewis, Luke Haynes, Stewart Kelly The questions: Why fiber/textiles and not another discipline? What does it mean to you personally, being a man? What does it mean to you being a man in the fiber/textiles field? How do you think that your gender influences your work as an artist? What do you think that you have brought with you to the fiber/textiles discipline, by being a man? Do you express your gender through fiber/textiles in a general, or more personal level? Would you encourage more men to enter the fiber/textiles world, and if so, why? What next for Ant/Cos/James/Joe/Luke/Stewart? Inspirational Plus comes in at 76 pages, with 49 full page, full colour photos of artists work. All imagery and all answers to questions are entirely the choice of each artist, nothing has been edited by me. Inspirational Plus can be bought for $6.99, and instantly downloaded from the usual Inspirational page, top of the page, second tab in.

The Henry Hussey Reliquaries Exhibition

Henry Hussey: Betrayal

Henry Hussey: Solidarity

British textile artist Henry Hussey works with actress Maxine Peak to inspire Reliquaries 

Henry Hussey’s solo show Reliquaries opens at Gallery 8 in London on Monday 12 July 2016. 

Hussey’s work for Reliquaries is drawn from three key inspirations from the artist’s life. His relationship with his father, death and memory, and a growing political awareness. Within the overall works of Reliquaries, there are two other bodies of work, The Last Breath and Locking Horns.

Hussey describes the making of such artworks as cathartic in that they deal directly and honestly with the complexities of his familial relationships.  Hussey found out that his father had two families, neither of whom knew of each other, and the anger arising from this informed his work to date.  This inspired the body of work Locking Horns.

Henry Hussey: Expulsion

Now the artist has chosen to move on from the catalyst of this anger towards his father and the work in Reliquaries, also addresses the concept of memory and death, and the idea of a fractured, divided England.

Using actors to create live performances of the work Hussey envisions and feed his inspiration.  Most notably, the performances for The Last Breath were enacted by renowned actress Maxine Peake. The sessions with Peake allowed Hussey to capture genuine responses to emotion through drawing, photography and audio recording, paying careful attention to the responses of the face and body to specific emotional intensities. 

Hussey says of Peake “The pathos she can convey is incredible. Maxine not only embodies the spirit of the work, but working with her inspired me to develop new areas of work and inspiration. The growing political comment in some of the works arose directly from our partnership.”

Henry Hussey: Jerusalem

Death and memory play a large part in Hussey’s ‘Reliquaries’ series. Rooted in the artist’s personal history, the artworks explore the ways that memories of a person are fragmented and composite – pieces of a life that are assembled in hindsight. Materials are significant within everything Hussey makes but perhaps none more so than in ‘Reliquaries’, in their allusions to Victorian mourning clothing, jewellery and domestic interior preparation by way of respect and remembrance.

The series of work Locking Horns explores what Hussey describes as his anger toward his father. Using diary-like sections of stitched text that leave no room for misunderstanding in tandem with striking, sometimes quite violent images, pieces such as ‘Eclipse’ and ‘Betrayal’ are powerful and intimate slices of a relationship that speak of power, control and usurpation. 

Another series also titled ‘Reliquaries’, meanwhile, uncovers aspects of death and memory. Again rooted in the artist’s personal history, the artworks explore the ways that memories of a person are fragmented and composite – pieces of a life that are assembled in hindsight. 

Henry Hussey: The North

Working with a range of traditional and contemporary processes such as embroidery and digital printing, his textile-based artworks utilise these materials as emotionally expressive tools. Materials are significant within everything Hussey makes but perhaps none more so than in ‘Reliquaries’, in their allusions to Victorian mourning clothing, jewellery and domestic interior preparation by way of respect and remembrance.

Henry Hussey completed a BA (Hons) at Chelsea College of Art, 2011, followed by an MA in Textiles at the Royal College of Art, 2013. Hussey has exhibited in Hong Kong and nationally in the Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition, 2014, and the Royal Academy Summer Show, 2014. The artist is based in Surrey, UK. Henry Hussey is represented by Coates and Scarry, curators of internationally ground-breaking shows and exhibit at Art Context Miami and New York.

Reliquaries is presented by Coates and Scarry at Gallery 8, 8 Duke Street St James, London, 12-30 July 2016.

Text supplied by Damson Communications

More of Henry's work can be found at his website: www.henryhussey.co.uk

Henry Hussey

Sheree Dornan - Living Art

Sheree Dornan: Boro(d) digital print cascade dress

It is always wonderful when art takes a broad stroke, when it transfers itself from one designation to another, one discipline to another, one world view to another. To connect art to a place that seems to others to be outside of itself, outside its natural remit, is to really understand art, to understand its central purpose in our lives.

Art is not there to be rarified, to be part of an ever accumulating collection, something to be passed on to future generations to maintain and then pass on again. Art is there to be lived, to be part of the now, it is there to be wrapped around the psyche, to be part of the everyday as much as it is of the special. Which is why art and design connections are particularly special.

Sheree Dornan: Boro(d) digital print on silk

Sheree Dornan: Boro(d) digital print on silk

From fine to design doesn't always work of course, there have been many disasters, many half attempts, many ill-considered ones as well. Often, art was stuck on top of a discipline, as if it were merely a form of signature from a particular artist, that it would somehow give cache to the discipline it was attempting to attach itself to. However, when it works well, when the connection is focused, sympathetic, and understood, then it works exceedingly well. 

The artist and designer Sheree Dornan has certainly succeeded in connecting and combining art and costume. Her beautiful works are so effortlessly interchangeable between fine art on a wall, and fine art on a body. This is no mere decoration of a garment, but is in fact an art piece draped upon a living person.

Sheree Dornan: Boro(d) digital print, detail

Sheree Dornan: Boro(d) digital print, detail

With minimal cutting and no waste Sheree is able to provide elegance and flow to her work. Garments appear to move as if the body that wears them is still part of the artwork, which in many ways they are. To wear a costume by Sheree is very much wearing a piece of artwork by Sheree, the two are connected so organically, that the space between one and the other cannot be seen.

Boro(d) is the name Sheree gives to her featured work. She cleverly uses the borrowed word  and technique of boro, and places it within the larger context of Boro(d), and although indeed borrowed, Sheree has made this technique and process her own.

Sheree Dornan: Boro(d) digital print, detail

Sheree Dornan: Boro(d) digital print, detail

Boro is derived from the Japanese term meaning something that is tattered and/or repaired. It is a word and definition that has many explanations, and many particular and conceptual meanings depending on who you are, and how you want to see it. But it is about the continuation of a piece of cloth, one that is maintained and added to over the years, allowing the integrity of the piece to remain even as it is modified and added to throughout its history, rather like maintaining a family quilt through constant repair.

Sheree produces her borrowed concept of the boro, her boro(d), using a working process that focuses on specialised digital printing techniques onto selected silk base cloths, producing limited edition runs of each print design. 

Sheree Dornan: Boro(d) hand dyed, hand stitched panel

Sheree Dornan: Boro(d) hand dyed, hand stitched panels

She uses mostly rectangular pieces that can be either made into fine art hangings, or suspended, or draped wall panels, or they can be formed into garments by draping them onto a mannequin with minimal cutting and no waste. Each garment becomes, but its very existence and making journey, an individual piece, with no other copy, no short or long runs, just the individual piece in its entirety.

Hand editing is done on each piece with embellishing techniques such as stitching and beading. The hand editing is applied to both the fine art wall panels as it is to the fine art garments, in many ways making it even more apparent that the creative techniques and process is the guiding line between fine art and costume, so that art becomes costume, and costume becomes art. 

Sheree Dornan: Boro(d) installation fashion forms exhibition

Sheree Dornan: Boro(d) mixed media on canvas

This is the defining point in Sheree's work, that combination of art and design, of wearing a garment that has been part of the process of fine art, because it is fine art. Being closely connected to an artwork is always a difficult process for many, but to be mesmerised by wearing a piece of fine art work, to be integral to the canvas, it couldn't get much better than that.

More of Sheree's work can be found at her website: www.shereedornan.com and www.blockdstudios.com.au

Sheree can also be found on social media: twitter, facebook, instagram

She is also one of 35 artists featured in the book Textile Visionaries: Innovation and Sustainability in Textile Design by Bradley Quinn

Please be aware that all of the imagery provided for this article, was indeed provided by Sheree. If you want to reproduce any of the images of her work, please ask her first. Thanks!

Sheree Dornan: Boro(d) panel detail with digital print boro patches

Claire Louise Mather - Nature and Textiles

Claire Louise Mather: Springtime, detail

Textile artists and nature so often seem to go hand in hand. It is not always the case that textile artists have nature as their primary inspiration, but more often than not you will find the connection there, it is a connection of intent. 

There is something about the physicality of textile work that seems to draw artists time and again to the natural world as canvas. Sky, earth, ocean, and all the permutations between, have fascinated and continue to fascinate textile artists. 

There are so many interpretations and projections of the natural world, all of which are valid, intriguing, adding always to the burgeoning vocabulary that is contemporary textile art.

Claire Louise Mather

Claire Louise Mather: Memories of March

One of those contemporary textile artists who have the natural world as a central pillar to their creativity, is Claire Louise Mather. Claire uses a combination of photography, collage, and textiles in her work in order to reflect on her own observations of nature. 

She is intrigued by all aspects of the natural environment, from the slow cycle of seasons, the constantly changing weather patterns, the slow grinding down of surfaces, all are part of the environment that she wishes to be part of, and in taking part, to also project back through her work, and out into the world of the viewer.

Claire Louise Mather: April Dawn

Claire often visits and revisits familiar spots in the environment in order to record and enjoy the changes that so often go unnoticed in the natural world. It is these changes that in many respects show us that we are alive, show us that movements are always cyclical, that birth is part of decay, and decay is part of rebirth.

This is an artist that has photography as an integral part of her initial work. She uses the camera as an ongoing sketchbook, detailing experiences of surfaces, textures, landscapes both large and small, all of the details that go eventually to make up her compositions.

Claire herself says that her work is "an exploration of drawing with stitch," one of constant experiencing of surfaces and textures. Texture, colour, and pattern are always visible in the artists work, and it is a combination that has no real end as each new composition is a new exploration, a new discovery of an always changing landscape. And that of course has to be the most exciting in its appeal to the artist, a landscape that both unfolds and renews within a constant cycle, giving an endless scenario of change and familiarity. 

Claire Louise Mather

Claire Louise Mather: Yorkshire, detail

With that in mind, enjoy the work of Claire as she both works through her fascination with, and intrigue over, the natural environments that she so effortlessly makes her own.

More of Claire's work can be found at her comprehensive website: http://www.sewsaddleworth.com/

All of the imagery of Claire's work shown in this article were generously supplied by the artist. If you want to use the imagery elsewhere please ask her before doing so. Thanks.

Claire Louise Mather: View From Long Lane

China Marks at the Owen James Gallery

Illustration: Flower Boy, 2015 (fabric, thread, screen-printing ink, fusible adhesive)

China Marks is an artist that was originally a sculptor, but over the years the artist has moved into textiles, and now produces a range of individualistic fabric-based compositions.

China is best known for her large format drawings, which take the form of fabric collages. Source materials for these collages often include an eclectic range, such as old commercial tapestry reproductions of historical paintings, pieces of found fabrics, various embroidery pieces, and general ephemera. 

Over long periods these eclectic raw materials are cut up by China, then formed, added to, removed from, and reformed, the process being repeated over and over, until both materials and process produce the desired effect that she wants to see within a composition. 

Illustration: All Kinds of Lost, 2015 (fabric, thread, fusible adhesive)

Illustration: Better Living Through Chemistry, 2013 (fabric, tea-dyed lace, thread, screen-printing ink, fusible adhesive)

The result of China's ongoing creative manipulation, eventually produces a range of surreal characters and creatures that inhabit equally surreal landscapes. With the addition of humorous and mocking text, which she also sews into the work, the resulting fabric drawings become a strange combination of collage, traditional needlework craft, surreal fantasy, and an almost Monty Python-like humour.

China's work, which has been brought together for her current exhibition, which runs at the Owen James Gallery, Brooklyn, New York from February 27 till March 27 2016, is a selection of the artist's work that has been chosen from both her “Broadsides” and “Short Subjects” series, ongoing projects which the artist has developed over the last three years. Although smaller in format than her larger pieces, these present drawings are not merely smaller versions, they differ considerably from the dense construction of her larger works. 

Illustration: God's Breath, 2014 (fabric, thread, fusible adhesive)

Illustration: So What!, 2015 (fabric, thread, screen-printing ink, old painty sweatpants, fusible adhesive, brass trim)

The "Short Subjects" are constructed on a clear plain white or off-white background. Initially intended by the artist as thought-pieces, or visual proverbs, they have developed into their own visual style. China begins each Short Subject with a scanned line drawing, the resulting digital file is then processed through CAD software.  A computerized embroidery machine sews out a rough guide of the drawing in running stitch onto fabric. The artist then builds on that guide, adding additional fabric pieces and embroidery. Sometimes parts of the original drawing will be covered over, sometimes it will be enhanced or transformed into a new character all together. 

As the artist forms and reforms the images, a story or situation develops in her mind, and phrases and conversations that arise from that development are also digitized through the computerized embroidery machine. These are then in turn sewn into the work, sometimes with the addition of found objects or trinkets, and the composition is then set. 

Illustration: Time Traveler, 2013, (fabric, thread, screen-printing ink, fusible adhesive)

Illustration: Winter Comet, 2016 (fabric, thread, lace, screen-printing ink, fusible adhesive)

China's text additions to her work, are integral and vital to the story, they can also be witty, ironic, and playful. Examples include: “I am going to Hell at a local motel. And I’ve packed accordingly” and “Heard about the psychotic squirrel who thought he was a washing machine?”

The title for each of China's compositions is purposely different from the text you read within it, the titles adding an interesting poetic dimension, so that titles such as “All Kinds of Lost”, “Winter Comet” and “Better Living Through Chemistry” give pause for thought when looking at the differing work.

In combination with the "Short Subjects" are a number of pieces from the "Broadsides" series. These are similar in scale to the other series, although the Broadsides differ in the respect that they are more streamlined and are primarily text-based with occasional illustrations.

Illustration: Clown Pants, 2014 (fabric, lace, thread, fusible adhesive)

Illustration: Wings for Arms, 2013 (fabric, thread, fusible adhesive)

Although the narrative image doesn't play as big a role in this second series, the effect of the compositions are equally witty, focused, and often poignantly observational. In one composition, a man wears clown pants and 4-inch heels to his mother’s funeral. In another, a woman has wings for arms but chooses to walk everywhere instead.

A third part of the exhibition derives from China's series of fabric-based artist books. These beautifully sculptural books contain much the same image density as the artist's larger tapestry-based drawings. In "A Book of Horses", there is a highly decorative landscape of traditional English fox hunting, which includes riders that have duck heads and horses that have tiger legs. Larger figures and insects hover over the landscape, producing a highly original metamorphic scene. 

This fascinating and entertaining exhibition is on at the Owen Jones Gallery from February 27 - March 27 2016.

Please be aware that all imagery of China's work, was supplied with kind permission by the gallery, and should not be reproduced without permission. Thanks.

Illustration: A Book of Horses, 2008 (fabric, thread, lace, screen-printing ink, latex, paint, industrial felt, fusible adhesive)

Giulia Gazza - Point in Space and Time

Looking anew at the simple and seemingly obvious parts of our lives, is and should always be a fascinating one. Some may scoff at the seemingly pointless nature of introspection, of re-examining what we all take for granted, but if you are not willing to look at aspects of your life, to re-examine what you have been told, and what you have taken for granted, what is the point of you living your life from your own unique perspective? If you are to live life through another, then that is a judgement to be made by that individual, personally it is not mine, nor ever will be.

So I am more than happy to feature the work of the artist Giulia Gazza. Giulia has taken the motion and the notion of the single point, as a fascinating project of intent. What is a point? Is it a physical mark of intent by one entity upon the state of another, is it a symbolic projection of existence, a transitory moment in space and time, or is it something in between these thoughts, or even something entirely outside of these definitions?

Giulia physically creates points, and non-points in her work. The physical creation of points are made by her in a number of creative ways. She maps points individually by pen, by needle, by brush. Points can be separate, focused, and alone, but they are also accumulative, so that groupings and grids of belonging, of identity begin to form seemingly outside the constraints of the artist and the process, as if they have a life and function of their own.

An interesting point, as we have to ask ourselves whether Giulia as an artist is creating the points of reference, or are the points already in place and she has the task of identifying them? By revealing defined moments in space and time that exist and continue to exist irrespective of the limited three dimensional world we experience as humans, what does the focused point engender?

Interestingly, her idea of non-points are just as fascinating as the fixed points, if not more so than her points of reference made by pen, needle, brush, for is not the lack of a point potentially more charged than the physical point itself. By fixing the coordinates in space and time, creating a seeming non-focus, does not that coordinated space, even though it lacks a physical point, become its own point in its own right, a point of non-fixed space.

Giulia's is a fascinating perspective, as it allows us to question our assumptions on so many levels, levels that she has identified, and levels that we as viewers get to question of ourselves. We get to see an insight into the complexity of both ourselves, our world, and perhaps the way we see and interpret that world, something we don't always appreciate, and something we are often not encouraged to ponder.  

We are all separate points of reference. Each of us has coordinates of uniqueness, we are moments in space and time that are brought together once, and only once. However, we are not fixed points, we are indeed points in motion, we have a path to navigate and along that path there are shifts and focuses. We are part of a greater grid of humanity and beyond, but we are also isolated in our points of reference. It is perhaps poignant that we live in a contemporary world of ever more intimate connection between points of belonging and connection, yet seem ever more isolated in that connected world.

It is a reference that can be picked up from Giulia's work. Many of the single images shown in this article belong to larger compositions, some of the physical points that she produces are randomised, some formalised, some separated by frames, some not. All of her work contains focused points, but they range from small ink dots, buttons, embroidered squares, and frames of nothing, yet they all in their own way relate to the same focused points, just expressed in a different format.

We are of course, as is the job of the artist, left with many questions. Giulia does not answer them for us, it is her job to reveal more questions, rather than answers. Life is in fact a series of questions, or at least it should be. Who, why, where, when, what, and more besides.

If we are part of a greater grouping, a greater grid, is it one of our own making, or are we part of a bigger plan? Do we, by focusing on ourselves, become a coordinate in the moment of time and space, or are we a reference beyond our knowing. It is an endless puzzle, a conundrum that may never have a speedy and logical answer, but then that is part of the fun of being alive in the first place. If all of this was answered, then life would never have the intrigue it does, and artists like Giulia would never get the chance to get herself and us to question where we are, who we are, and what we are, and I for one am more than happy for her to continue.

More of Giulia's intriguing work can be found at her website: www.giuliagazzaartist.wix.com

All imagery used in this article was generously supplied by the artist, and is copyrighted to her. Please ask her for permission before reusing. Thanks.

Roxanne Lasky and the Tide of Movement

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Migration. Hireath

So many creative individuals come to work with textiles, some briefly integrating the discipline within their larger mixed media work, others looking for some significance that they feel that textiles can bring them. Artists can drift into textiles through seeming coincidence, others with a more defined purpose. 

Fine artists in particular often seem drawn to textiles as a medium in which they feel comfortable. It seems to give them a means in which to express themselves more clearly, more empathically, it gives them a subtlety of colour and texture, and perhaps more importantly, it gives them a means to express themselves emotionally.

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 1

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 1 (detail)

The artist Roxanne Lasky came to textile art through fine art painting, she originally expressed herself through watercolour and oils. It is not hard to see elements of that fine art discipline in Roxanne's work, she has a light painterly touch to her compositions. However, it would be a mistake to see this artist as doing nothing more than replicating the early work she produced in paint, within textiles.

Roxanne has grown as a creative artist, as all artists must. She has learnt to understand and to appreciate both the limitations, as well as the freedoms that textiles can give to her as an artist. It is a discipline that can be complex, as well as simplistic. It has many layers of process, often literally, and these layers of process guide the exploration of the artist, they create parameters for work, narrative, and composition.

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 3

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 3 (detail)

Parameters are always useful to an artist. We talk a lot about the intellectual and creative freedom of an artist, and of course that is of paramount importance, but disciplines have their own rules, understandings, and limitations, and as an artist you can either fight against those seeming constraints, or you can flow with them, allowing them to cushion and guide your creative pathway.

Personal narrative is a driving force in Roxanne's work. Personal experience influences, colours, and reflects within her compositions, they emerge if you like, from the life of the artist. Roxanne is very much involved with the themes of place, cycles, movement, transformation, and migration. 

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 4

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 4 (detail)

Her work runs on major titled themes such as Tidal, Migration, Memory. These themes can easily be seen as belonging to the larger external world, the world of environment, and our place within it, and to an extent they are. However, Roxanne equally deals with these subject titles as an internal exploration and expression, and this is perhaps the most interesting aspect of her work, as it is where we all sit, internally looking out at the external.

Externally, we seem caught up in the web of life, trapped in the constraints of movement and cycles that are not necessarily of our choosing. However, internally our lives seem governed by our own sense of place, cycle, migration. We travel along the paths of our own purpose, often repeating elements of ourselves, travelling in circles and cycles of meaning that suit us. We are part of a tide of movement, not through the physical world, but through the world of our own meaning, our own perception. 

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. 27 Stages (detail)

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. 12 Moons (detail)

Perception is our tool of individuality, and individual perception is the most significant work tool of the artist. Roxanne's creative themes are her personal themes, they are her personal perspective. Her compositions are the product of her practical working process, as well as her deep internal process. Both drive the other along their twin paths towards completion, both are of equal significance, both are needed to complete the creative work, and both give us the continuing expression of the artist Roxanne Lasky.

More of Roxanne's work can be found at her website: www.roxannelasky.com, as well as at the social media sites of: twitter, facebook, instagram, pinterest.

All of the imagery used for this article was kindly supplied by the artist herself, and is therefore copyrighted to her. Please do not reuse the imagery unless you have permission from Roxanne herself.

Illustration: Roxanne Lasky. Tidal 2