New Embroidery Group

Christine Mead:

On Tuesday 10th May 2011 Members of the New Embroidery Group met in the National Trust Study Room at The Old Fort on Box Hill for a sketching day. Headed up by Liz Holliday and Liz Ashurst we enjoyed a most pleasant day, made more so, by the fine weather.

On arrival a much appreciated refreshment stop was taken where most of us had a cuppa but where Liz H tackled an ice lolly shaped like a Dalek, with balls in, which took her most of the morning to consume!  We discussed the proposed schedule for the day and talked of how we could address the project set before us using Liz H’s proposed thoughts on multi-mode ‘sketching’, moving away from the traditional drawing/painting focus on landscape, to a wider recording context within which to experience a sense of touch, taste, smell, as well as sight through words, photographs, drawing, painting, recording sound, souvenirs and journeys.

Following this discussion Liz A then took us on a rambling orientation tour around the area and we explored the flora and fauna (insects) at length and in detail, identifying plants, flowers and trees whilst soaking up the breathtaking views, which were remarkably clear. Liz A’s wealth of knowledge was an education to me anyway and combined with the input from everyone else we were able to identify pretty much everything in our path.

We returned from the ramble to enjoy a picnic lunch in the grounds, during which time we were joined by Mr Holliday our ‘technical guru’ who later set up lap tops and printers so that we were able to view the fruit of our labour. After lunch, armed with our chosen medium and sketch books, we dispersed to the location of choice and spent an hour or so sketching, sewing, writing or photographing.  Liz H used her iPhone to record video clips of this time and to generally catch the ambience of the day.

On our return to the Study Room, we discussed, each in turn, what we had taken from our time spent in the field, and where everyone contributed thoughts and ideas and how they could be taken forward.  I know we all enjoyed Alison Hird’s photograph of the little beetle in the buttercup and listening to her thoughts as she contemplated the day in words.‘Our Man’ came good and we were able to see photographs and the video clips from Liz H’s phone, running through the computer.  It was amazing.

Unfortunately I and my fellow passengers had to leave before the others did, but our homeward journey included much animated and inspired conversation.

Our thanks go to Liz A and Liz H for all the time and organisation that went into making our day a very memorable, enjoyable and inspirational one. My head is still reeling with ideas, most of which my hands and time will never allow me to do at the moment, one day …… maybe!

Carole Waddle:

I wasn’t sure what to expect as I arrived at the National Trust car park at the top of Box Hill, for a drawing day with NEG members.  Drawing is not my forte and was feeling somewhat apprehensive, but I need not have worried when I saw a few familiar faces.  What a beautiful, warm and sunny day, with a slight breeze ruffling through the trees.  Box Hill and the surrounding countryside looked resplendent in fresh green growth against the dark green of the firs.

With our cups of tea or coffee, Liz Holliday marshalled us into the NT’s Study room to outline the day’s plan.  She gave us a list of suggestions of what we might think about during the day.   Liz Ashurst then took us on a familiarisation walkabout before we were let loose to do some drawing.  Walking along the chalk path we looked at and photographed the landscape, trees and flowers and I must say the NEG members are a knowledgeable lot when it comes to identifying wild cherries and spotted orchids, to name but a few.  I confess to a very limited knowledge of wild flowers and trees.

Some of the suggestions that Liz H asked us to think about during the day, was not only to look ahead, but to look up as well as down, to get a different view of what was around us.  So often we miss what is above our heads and down at our feet.  To take photographs from different angles and viewpoints, even at ground level.  Also to get up close and personal to our surroundings, to look a few yards away, then to look into the distance – our perception and perspective changes.  We were also encouraged to listen to the sounds around us, the wind blowing through the trees rustling the leaves, the sunlight casting shadows, the birdsong, all these affect our senses.

It was then time to have our picnic lunch sitting outside in the warmth of the sun, before we went back to the study room to collect our drawing materials to draw, sketch, paint for about an hour or so.  I wandered off back along the chalk track to where I had earlier espied a group of old fir trees hidden in a small and shady dell.  I settled down to draw my gnarled and twisted trunks whose branches sagged down to the ground.  I have a fascination (almost a fetish) for tree bark whether it’s knotted and knobbly or smooth and silky.

Later back in the study room, we settled down to see and hear what everyone else had been up to.  It was interesting to hear why we had drawn what we had, or painted, and I found particularly moving Alison’s written thoughts of her surroundings.

Liz H’s husband had joined us complete with laptop, scanner and printer so that we could look at our photographs.  Unfortunately the laptop wouldn’t ‘talk’ to the printer – so no printouts.  However, Alison’s close up photograph of a beautiful iridescent green beetle sitting in the middle of a yellow buttercup brought gasps of admiration from the rest of us.  Also intriguing was Liz H’s videos of walking along the path and capturing the movement of trees blowing in the wind. I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed the day which has given me lots of food for thought.

So thank you Liz for spurring us on and to your husband for bringing all the computer bits and pieces……..

Janice Lawrence – watercolour

Liz Ashurst – monochrome watercolour

Liz Ashurst – stitch sketch

Cathy Griffiths – charcoal landscape

Carole Waddle – Tree detail

Photo.  – Alison Hird

Photo. – Alison Hird

Summer  – Moyra McNeill

At our Christmas party in December we joyfully celebrated with cake and candles our President Moyra’s 80th birthday. For this reason it seems appropriate at this point to look back at her immensely creative life, thanking her for all the inspiration and help she has given to so many people.

Moyra was born in Blackheath, London on 27th September 1930. Both her her parents were in some way involved with textiles: her father was a representative for a wool dyeing company based in Scotland and her mother trained at Camberwell School of Art, becoming a fashion artist for Weldons. She had two older brothers and Moyra recalls that as a child she always enjoyed making things which included mud pies decorated with garden flowers! Her interest in embroidery came much later when she attended Chislehurst Grammar school. Here she was fortunate in having Barbara Snook as her art teacher who gave her much encouragement. Partly as a result of this she was accepted for a full time course at Bromley College of Art. During her studies she was fortunate in being introduced to Mary Thomas’s Dictionary of Stitches. This was a turning point as it directed her to a medium which she found fascinating for its colour, texture and structure. In 1951, after four years of study Moyra graduated with a National Diploma in Design, specialising in hand and machine embroidery.

In 1953 she married Bryan McNeill at Orpington Presbyterian Church. They had met some years earlier in the Youth Club when Moyra was 14 years old and it became clear that Bryan had already set his sights on her when he mischieviously tied her dress ribbons to a chair during a service! They set up home in Orpington and Moyra began teaching in a part-time capacity at a secondary school in Tonbridge, later teaching adults for the London borough of Bromley and for the Royal School of Needlework. From 1971 she prepared adult students for the City and Guilds of London Institute Certificate in Embroidery and became an examiner. Since then she has taught many short courses and given lectures in Britain, the USA (’74, ’77, ’85) and in Australia (’78).

Along the way, Moyra also found time to write four books Blackwork Embroidery with Elizabeth Geddes, (1965 reprinted by Dover ) Pulled Thread (1971 reprinted 1986), Quilting for Today (1975) and Machine Embroidery: Lace and See-through Techniques (1985). This was apart from writing numerous articles for the Embroiderer’s Guild, women’s magazines and craft publications.

Underpinning all this industry, Moyra has always practised her art and taken part in a variety of juried exhibitions notably with the ‘62 group, the Embroiderer’s Guild and the Beckenham Textile Studio. She can be duly proud of the fact that her work has been acquired by the V&A, local authorities in England and individuals in Switzerland, U.S.A. and Australia.

Moyra has kept her sketchbooks for the last 15 years using a variety of media from pencil, ink and pastel, her sources of inspiration being mainly cars, birds and to some extent flowers. She admires the paintings of Albert Irvine which she finds free, colourful and intuitive, also the work of Alice Kettle and Michael Brennand Wood. Moyra is strongly of the opinion that design and form are far more important than techniques which can be learned. She also feels that an artist should convey to the observer some kind of idea or emotion and not be so intellectual than no one can understand it. Her modest studio is a small room at her home which she says has a happy feeling; a place where she can retreat with Radio 4 and do what she wants to do.

In recent years, working with her group Redivivus she has greatly enjoyed collaborating with Janice Lawrence and Gillian Mobsby bouncing off ideas and sharing advice. I asked Moyra what she thinks is her greatest achievement and she said that it was ‘opening students’ eyes to see and enjoy what is around them then finding their own form of self expression to interpret their ideas’. And what of the future of NEG?  She said that we should all be taking embroidery seriously, be sincere in our intention and take more risks! A good message for our next exhibition at the Knitting and Stitching show in 2012.

Bird – Moyra McNeill

It seems hard to believe that Elspeth Kemp was 90 in January this year, still designing, still embroidering and still enthusiastic about all aspects of textiles and art.

Elspeth was born in Crewkerne into a comfortable middle class family, surrounded by the art and sculpture of the late Victorian taste.  Her father was 59 years old when she was born to her much younger mother and his influence was an inspiration to her in her early years.  Due to the economic crash in the 1930s, the family lost everything and moved to London.   It was when she was fourteen years old that she left school and was accepted  at the Barrett Street Technical School (a precursor to the London College of Fashion) to study embroidery. Elspeth says. ‘As soon as I went there I felt I belonged.’  The school, run by Ethel Cox, who interviewed Elspeth, ran a variety of courses besides embroidery, including dressmaking, tailoring and hairdressing and was aimed at providing employment in the trade when the girls left after their two-year course.  Elspeth studied clothing design, hand and machine embroidery, using the commercial machines of the period and became proficient at tambour beading.  She recalls,   ‘I used to make myself all sorts of garments and funny little hats during this time.’

When she left Barrett Street, she joined an ‘agency’, run by a French woman, who employed six or eight skilled embroiderers producing work for various couture houses. During this period she was involved with the Queen’s coronation robes and garments for Hardy Amies, Schiaparelli and Worth.  A change of job came when the Second World War began. Through her mother who worked for Maples, she got a job in charge of their cutting room, working on MOD contracts making tents, sacks, and bivouacs – a big contrast to the couture world but by the end of the war she had married and started a family.

Her teaching career began when she started working at the Royal School of Needlework and then for the Inner London Education Authority, where she became Assistant Curator of Theatrical Costume. This collection contained 3000 items which were used by schools in London.   In the 1960s she went to Hammersmith College of Art to study City and Guilds Embroidery and it was during this time that she won the Embroiderers’ Guild Challenge Cup with a work entitled Daywear which was inspired by the 60s fashion when the mini skirt, straight dresses, knee length socks and boots and beehive hairstyles were all the rage. Indeed she has always been interested in fashion; though she does not necessarily follow the trends of the day, she often gains inspiration from studying fashion magazines as well as historical and ethnic costume to create her individual style of dressing in her unique embroidered clothes.

Her teaching career for ILEA led to being appointed a full time lecturer and administrator at the Marylebone Institute, where she not only brought her creative skills to teaching embroidery but included curating students’ exhibitions. Although she continued to produce her own work, it is since her retirement that she has been able to have the time to produce her most imaginative and innovative textiles. Her ecclesiastical embroideries can be seen at Holy Trinity Church, Bengeo, Herts for which she designed and made a group of banners depicting the Trinity, as well as a cope celebrating one hundred and fifty years of the church.   She has also created a number of embroideries for the beautiful Saxon Church of St. Leonard, which lies opposite to her delightful cottage in Bengeo.  It was here that she recently had a major exhibition which was a sell-out.   In fact in the past three years she has had four exhibitions, including a one-woman show at Hertford Museum which was critically acclaimed in the press.

Her energy and enthusiasm is still unbounded – she says her inspiration ‘comes for continuous observation, many things can spark off an idea, even just the atmosphere of visiting an exhibition or seeing a painting. To this day I live and breathe textiles and I am inspired by history, causes and great events.’ I’ve known Elspeth Kemp for about forty years, since I joined her evening embroidery class at the Marylebone Institute.  It was she who opened my eyes to the world of embroidery and design, encouraged me to study for City and Guilds and started me on my teaching career.  She is still a good friend, always enthusiastic about her work, interested in textiles and the arts in general.  She is certainly an inspiration to all of us who love embroidery and she says ‘I will never retire!’

Quilt

Dove

Design

Compton Verney, not far from Stratford-on-Avon, is a museum and art gallery which increasingly is holding interesting exhibitions, the most recent being a show of the naive painter Alfred Wallis’ work juxtaposed with that of his friend Ben Nicholson. However for NEG members there was also a delightful exhibition of 19th century woolwork embroideries created by sailors in their spare time.

Sewing was part of a sailor’s repertoire of skills, stitching sails and mending clothes, so it was only natural that they turned this ability into a creative art. Being in the Royal Navy in the latter part of the C19th was a less arduous job than during the Napoleonic Wars, when press gangs roamed the streets, forcing young men to go to sea.  It was now regarded as a patriotic career at a time when the British Empire was so powerful and ‘Britain ruled the waves’.

The pictures on show come from a variety of sources – Compton Verney itself has a collection, others were on loan from the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, from Portsmouth, as well as some treasures which are in private hands. Mostly portraits of actual ships were favoured, with every detail carefully depicted.  Many of them were signed by the maker, or have a known provenance.  Sometimes the sailor would even stitch a personal photograph to the corner of the embroidery – one example of this is by F. Paul created in 1888 which shows a sea scene surrounded by flags.  Indeed flags of various nations figure in a number of embroideries, though apparently the accuracy of their designs and colours is open to question.  Although sailors were not allowed to join a trade union, they were obviously aware of the current trade union movement with their colourful banners, and many of the later woolwork pictures appear to have been influenced by their iconography.

The techniques used to create these pictures nearly all conformed to the same style with a limited repertoire of stitches. They were invariably worked in the recently produced Berlin wool with details picked out in silk or button thread.  The background of firm cotton canvas (not sailcloth which would have been too heavy and difficult to pierce.) was completely covered with a long, usually horizontal, straight stitches depicting the sky and sea.   This was economical with the thread and covered the ground quickly. In some cases the direction of stitch was varied to show movement of the sails or clouds. The main body of the ship would be embroidered in a similar fashion, with the silk rigging and small details superimposed. On one or two examples the background was stitched in chain stitch and occasionally braids, beads and sequins were added.

In the last room of the exhibition were a number of exquisite works of similar subject matter by John Craske, which are much more sophisticated in their creation and design. These are on loan from the Britten-Pears Foundation for which Peter Pears purchased a number of his works. Those in the exhibition are finely stitched in silk, portraying seascapes and ships, in soft lustrous colours, with the direction of stitch a major factor, giving movement and vitality to the waves and clouds.

John Craske was born in Lower Sheringham, Norfolk in 1881.  He became a fisherman, working out of Grimsby and subsequently was a fishmonger, selling fish from his pony and trap to Norfolk villagers. When the First World War began his health precluded him from taking part, due to a brain abscess, so he came home to Norfolk to be cared for by his wife, Laura.  He took up modelling boats, painting and needlework and often spent weeks in bed.   By chance he was discovered by a poetess named Valentine Ackland who saw the potential in his work and showed it to some of her influential friends. This led to exhibitions in London and New York.  A large work by Craske can be seen at the Shell Museum at Glandfordin North Norfolk.  After many years of ill-health he died in 1943 aged 63.

The two exhibitions at Compton Verney which complement each other continue until 5th June and are well worth a visit.

Pomegranate.

Each emperor/empress’s clothes were packed in trunks after their deaths and not to be worn again. Fortunately, Mao’s plans during the Cultural Revolution, to remove the collection never materialised so today we benefit. We are able to view the stunning display in fresh, riotous colour.

After our eyes on stalks meander through the dazzling riches of the main exhibition, a privileged group ferreted through a small selection of the Chinese collection in the storerooms.

Fat on the fingers damages the metalwork embroidery so there were some pieces we were not allowed to handle but other works of less than museum quality we could handle and twirl around in.

It was explained that while there is great difficulty dating formal costume because the traditional style was so rigidly formatted, informal dress gave a subtle nod to fashion so it is therefore easier to place.

Interestingly, many of the more highly decorated and embroidered parts of a garment were reused. We saw several beautifully stitched sleeve bands that had been carefully stored for re-use.

Quality control in Imperial workshops was severe. A small piece of embroidery could take someone a year to complete only to be refused and sent back if standards were not met.

But what is the Forbidden Stitch and why so named? We sought to work out the technique of the stitches we examined through a magnifying glass. This was difficult to do as the work was so fine. Used in various ways, the stitch gave a design form, relief or pattern. The texture of crowded knots was well suited to items like children’s shoes or bags, everyday items that would require durability. We saw early tomb relics, cushions and pictures all bearing the distinctive, finely clustered knots. Oh, the worker’s eyesight!

Butterfly

Peony

Once again, thanks to Liz Holliday for organising the study session and to the V&A for an enjoyable peep backstage

Chinese Folk Embroidery, Thames and Hudson – A good reference book which illustrates with photos and clear diagrams some of the stitches we saw.

The two of us met up on 11 January to look at the Designer Crafts at the Mall 2011.  Over coffee, we contemplated the best way to exchange our viewing experience without unduly interrupting one another’s thoughts.  We created a list of questions we could note answers to as we walked round independently.

After 75 minutes we were definitely in need of a lunch break!  We talked over our initial responses to the questions we had posed ourselves and then we went to view together for the remaining 30 minutes.  At home we wrote up the following to share in this newsletter:

How do you approach looking at an exhibition?  Do you write things down or draw as you go?

Linda: I don’t write anything down unless something particularly interesting catches my eye that I want to be sure to remember, and the same with drawing. Today, with our questions in mind, I made a lot of notes and I found that a useful exercise and a help in focusing on what I was seeing.

Liz H: I usually walk round slowly the first time and make notes on anything I find I want to remember, adding diagrams where appropriate.  An artist would not classify them as drawings!  If I have time I retrace my steps again but without writing.

What pieces tend to draw you in to look more closely?

Linda: I always want to try to understand the technique that has been used and the materials which a piece has been made from. That makes me look closely. Colour and ambiguity in a piece also draw me in.

Liz H: I am always drawn in by pieces that uplift my spirit.  I admire innovation in both ideas and form.

What kind of work do you find immediately off putting?

Linda: Anything twee or cute, bland or quirky. And I find I am more and more nauseated by nostalgia.

Liz H: I tend to withdraw from work in colours I do not like, or that is visually aggressive or depressing.  I had an instant desire to put one set of deconstructed ceramic pieces in the nearest skip.  How judgemental and negative was that!  I was not drawn to the Thorn Women either.

What would you say about presentation and pricing here?

Linda: There were some ingenious methods of presentation, from putting knitted wire fish on spikes, to stranding metal leaves on criss-crossed monofilament, to using old window frames. For the most part exhibitors had given careful thought to presentation and come up with solutions that worked.  Prices were reasonable.

Liz H; At this annual exhibition I rarely question presentation but find instead good ideas.

A large solar coffee table by Daniel Tomlinson for £3000, a potential wedding hat by Emma Yeo of luxury signature wood for £500 and a gem of a bowl by Delfina Emanuel for £140 were not overpriced.

What processes exhibited interested you?

Linda: The dense vibrant machine embroidery of Joan Baillie, the knitted fish of Anita Bruce, the fabric sandwiches of Wendy Dolan, the ambiguous layering of Helen Colling  and Susie Vickery’s combination of digital technology and hand embroidery.

Liz H: liked the lampshades made of old book pages and I looked at the way several artists were incorporating photographs and maps.

What words in the work or artists words did you find communicated?

Linda: I liked short explanations of inspiration, techniques and materials used.

Liz H: I instantly related to the place names in Wendy Dolan’s work.  I liked Carol Naylor’s commentary “I look, I draw, I select, I translate”.

The art speak of Rebecca Blesovsky’s exhibit though, later found on the back of a postcard would ruin her work for me if I read it again!  Yet it would be her collection of pieces I would have chosen to walk home with if I could.

What other crafts in the exhibition had textile linked processes or looks?

Linda: Some of the ceramics had markings that mimicked stitches and there were links to patchwork in some of the inlaid furniture.

Liz H: I was struck this time by the many traditional patchwork shape pieces used by the furniture makers in wood.

Did you have any interesting conversations with exhibitors or viewers?

Linda: I had several conversations with exhibitors who were invigilating. If you stand in front of work and write things in a notebook you may attract attention.  All were touchingly keen to talk about their work, explain how they had made it and answer any questions. Once or twice I had to resort to expressing a genuine admiration for the way the work was presented in order to avoid expressing an opinion about the work itself.

Liz H: Delfina gave us an insight into her ceramics work and how she creates her trademark rough organic surfaces by hand with a needle.  Most of the artists present made the effort to share as did some of the other viewers.

Dear Members, It was good to see so many of you at our AGM on 11th March filling the room at the Art Workers’ Guild whilst those unable to attend kindly sent their apologies. Our speaker this year was Felicity Cooke, a graduate in Constructed Textiles from the R.C.A. who had been teaching full time since 1991 on the Applied Arts Degree course at Hertfordshire University. Her lecture gave us an insight into the successes and frustrations of working with undergraduates. One of the difficulties appears to be the lack of technical skills shown by the students due to little or no teaching in school or in the home plus increasing bureaucracy and funding cuts. In her opinion, the way forward is private education which sadly will benefit only those who can afford it.

In February we enjoyed a visit to the V&A to see the splendid exhibition of Chinese Imperial Robes from the 18th and 19th centuries. This was followed in the afternoon by a special viewing behind the scenes of the museum when we were allowed to sketch and photograph more sumptuous robes. The quality of the embroidery in glowing colours of silk thread with symbolic flowers, birds and animals was quite breathtaking, telling us a lot about the exceptionally high standards prevailing in the workshops of that period. With the influence of China becoming more prominent on the world stage, this was a timely exhibition.

Whilst in Brighton at the International Craft and Hobby Fair with Meike Dalal Laurenson, I came across a stand publicising the National Needlework Archive located at The Old Chapel Textile Centre, Newbury, Berkshire. This is a voluntary project which maintains a documentary and photographic record of textiles located in communities throughout the British Isles. It includes work in public places, work belonging to organisations and private collections available for research. The NNA works closely with communities, museums, guilds and universities to promote textiles, textile education and research.  The good news is that Constance Howard’s remarkable textile mural ‘The Country Wife’ designed in 1951 for the Festival of Britain is now being cleaned and conserved. If you would like more information on this registered charity and would like to make a visit, the times of opening are on its website :

www. nationalneedleworkarchive.org.uk

One of the most exciting things I’ve done this Spring is to visit St Petersburg, a city which I’ve always longed to see. The temperature was markedly chilly -10 degrees with the Baltic Sea frozen over, the river Neva a glistening ice rink and snow of at least a metre thick lying in heaps along the streets. The grandiose buildings sparkled with a spectrum of colours ranging from golds, whites, yellows and greens to brilliant pinks and cerulean blues which contrasted with the black silhouettes of diminutive figures on foot, reminiscent of a Lowry painting. Our itinerary was packed with visits to the famous Hermitage Museum, the Russian State Museum, the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul and a wonderful performance of the ballet Cinderella at the famous Mariinsky theatre. This was quite apart from visits to other magnificent baroque buildings such as the St Catherine’s palace at Tsarskoe Selo and Pavlovsk.

However, one of the best parts of the trip was making contact with two textile artists. Diana Springall kindly gave me details of a senior research officer, Marina Blumin who worked at the Hermitage museum. She had met her at a European Textile Network conference in Austria in 2008 and knew she was keen to make contact with the West. Marina was immensely helpful and arranged for me to meet Isabella Baikova and Dr Natalia Tsvetkova. We met Isabella late one evening in her flat, shared with her husband and son on the 7th floor of an old building, shrouded in darkness and quite difficult to locate. She had little English but was accompanied by her agent and translator who was also Design director of the City of St Petersburg. Everyone was very welcoming and to my amazement I immediately recognised her work, a quilted wall hanging which I had studied for it’s unusual design at the Knitting and Stitching show in 2008. This was a promising start and she showed me other superb work which is to be shown at the Lausanne Biennale this coming May. I met the other artist Natalia in the Ethnographic Museum. She specialised in woven textiles and had already visited Scotland on a residency. Both artists were highly ambitious and were keen to meet other textile artists. The general feeling I received was that they wanted to move on from the weighty traditions of the past to a more contemporary approach in all areas of art. As the younger generation, they are doing their absolute best to make the enormous transition from communism to western style democracy.  With the difficulties of climate, location and funding, these people are to be congratulated for their sheer determination to succeed internationally, sending out a clear signal that we too should be looking towards a wider audie

Initial exploration

Box Hill panorama

Janice and Liz experimenting

Reviewing video clips

Christine Mead’s sketchbook

Cathy Griffiths – charcoal landscape

Carole Waddle – tree detail

Liz Ashurst – monochrome watercolour

Liz Holliday – finger painting

Janice Lawrence – watercolour

Alison Hird – flower detail

Alison Hird – insect detail

Liz Ashurst – stitch sketch

This Christmas season London has been host to three magnificent exhibitions, they spanned the years either side of  the beginning of the last century, as well as taking one on a journey around the world.

Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballet Russes at the V&A was designed in a very theatrical way incorporating music, film and dramatic lighting as well as exotic painted and embroidered costumes and the beautifully drawn and coloured images by Leon Bakst.

Diaghilev worked with many of the most inspired artists of the day including the dancer Nijinsky, the composers Stravinsky and de Falla, choreographers Mikhail Fokine, Massine, Najinska and Balanchine. Sets and costumes were designed by Picasso, Matisse, Jean Cocteau and others.

His first ballet season was launched in Paris in 1909 and during the First World War he took his troupe to North and South America, later to travel Europe with the company until his death in Venice in 1929.

Gauguin: Maker of Myth was a full exploration of the artist’s life with two areas showing artefacts, writings and photographs from during his life and time. Early paintings showed that he had been interested in illustrating children or people depicting their thoughts or dreams within the art work. An example of this is the Vision of the sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel).  Though he claimed to be opposed to the Christian Church his imagery often drew on the bible for source material, as well as the myths and beliefs of other cultures.

For many years as well as creating his paintings, he worked in clay and wood. When he went to Tahiti in 1890s he was disappointed to find that it had become westernised and not the ‘Earthly Paradise’ he was expecting. In fact, some of the primitive style carvings shown in his paintings he had carved himself. However, he painted luxuriant tropical settings using rich colours and tried to create the atmosphere of lost myths. The female form is present in many of his works, the figures having the timeless quality of the ‘Eternal Feminine’ popular with the Symbolist artists of his time.

Words are an integral part of his work and often appear to reinforce the mystery of a distant foreign paradise. His life ended, still in search of a tropical Eden, in the Marquesas in 1903.

Pioneering Painters: The Glasgow Boys 1880-1900 at the Royal Academy was breath of fresh air after such exoticism. Wonderful paintings of people and landscapes. Many lit with a glow of light, large skilful watercolours with translucent detail. Country scenes with healthy cabbages in cottage gardens crisply painted. Clear northern light. Techniques used for grasses and undergrowth heralded the styles of modern artists such as David Tress and Kurt Jackson.

Perhaps I am a northerner at heart but I loved the colour, warmth and richness of the Diaghilev and Gauguin exhibitions.

The title and the flier for this Exhibition were intriguing and viewing didn’t disappoint. It would have been worth going just to see Susie McMurray’s dress constructed of leather pierced with thousands of pins rather like an elegant hedgehog. She uses the garment as a metaphor for grief. The pins create both a protective layer and isolation, as emotional pain causes the bereft to repel sympathy. This garment appears early in the first of four themes that make up the exhibition; Storytelling, Building, Belonging and confronting, and Performing. Each piece or group of pieces varies greatly from obvious garments, to structures, to videos all making thought- provoking or questioning statements.

Grayson Perry’s gown embroidered with giant eyes opens the show, looking down on the staircase above the entrance but it is the sheer, finely slashed biodegradable plastic dress hanging by Helen Storey that casts a spell. Its companion, suspended over a vat of water has all but dissolved. The title Say Goodbye says it all. A short video by Cindy Sharman harks back to paper dolls and their tabbed dresses. In this rather disturbing piece Cindy becomes a series of dolls wearing basic underwear. As the first doll she tries to take a dress from a collection of garments beside her but is firmly put back in her place by a muscly hand. Returning to anonymity and conformity.

Marie-Ange Guilleminot’s response to artefacts in the Memorial museum in Hiroshima are as exquisite as they are poignant, displayed in a glass case: a white bag, something that looks like a textile doughnut which a photograph shows to be a cocoon for a baby ; and myriad tiny origami swans folded from 2 inch squares of paper. On the wall close by a pure white dress, its pattern shapes marked out in white on a pink kimono suspended from the ceiling. A reference to changing times.

The group of works in the Building section as might be expected were mainly architectural. Acconci Studio uses folding and pleating to produce mobile personal spaces. White, silver and holographic materials made the shapes all the more dramatic. Taking the idea of a mobile temple as her theme Mella Jaarsma has created a wooden framework crowned by a Chinese style temple. A Dutch artist living in Indonesia she shows pictures of mobile kiosks that act as shelter for a priest and a point of comfort for refugees in a strange country. On more traditional lines, Azra Aksamija shows what initially looks like a black suit but when a flap at the front of the garment is unzipped the extended fabric becomes a prayer mat. A patch of brilliant colour is Maria Papadimitriou’s contribution to the display. She celebrates the Roma tradition of making exotic wedding blankets, turning them into long coats. One is particularly beautiful. Its softer colours would suggest an older blanket and the external seams reduce the visual bulk of the garment whilst breaking up the pattern of peacocks and flowers.

The subheadings for this exhibition at times appear to overlap. For example Yohji Yamamoto’s stunning dress constructed of wooden panels joined with tiny hinges could be linked to architecture, armour and the constraints of the corset and to building. However it runs into the theme of belonging and conforming.

Grim reality comes to the fore in two videos. The first, by Sharif Waked shows workers washing garments for the insatiable demand for cheap clothing in the west. Their work and domestic conditions are dreadful and yet in some there is a colour and dignity which logically should not be there. It is a pity more people won’t be privy to Sharif’s observations. The other film started with a cat walk show of men wearing shirts. Nothing unusual until you see that each shirt has either large holes or the means to rapidly expose the upper torso. All becomes clear once Arab men are shown approaching Israeli checkpoints. A disturbing reflection on humanity.

Not all of this section is grim. Efforts to create garments from the Chinese flag, whilst not setting the world alight are cheery.

Alexander McQueen’s Joan dress opens the contribution to Performance. He shows an exquisite beaded red lace dress that continues over the wearer’s face. When originally shown we are told the catwalk was edged with flames. Hussein Chalayan uses bunraku puppeteers to hold a model’s floating dress as a reflection of control. The view of black masked figures is discomforting. In contrast Gillian Ayres piece can’t but raise a smile. It consists of  a huge photograph of people in uniform, filmed over the course of an hour. In time individuals fidget and the formality is lost.

This exhibition mixed quality with provocation a very worthwhile mix.