Cloth and Memory

Quick trip to Saltaire this morning to catch the “Cloth and Memory” exhibition before it finishes on Monday.

It’s two textile artists and one painter responding to the history of Salts Mill – “the memory of cloth and the making of cloth that has seeped into the fabric of the building”. 

I was especially drawn to Beverly Ayling-Smith’s “Fragmented Memories” pieces, comprising faint prints (?) of a child’s dress on fine white fabric, totally fragmented and then loosely pieced together again. And her “Embedded Memory”, a few simple stitches suggesting a similar tiny dress but appearing to be worked into the actual white brick walls. Some pictures here, including the stitched wall.

Carol Quarini used net curtains “…as a metaphor for the duality of home as sanctuary and prison…” . Huge curtains covered in tallies formed from thousands of pins and needles suggest marking time or laborious counting. Small net curtains are embroidered with phrases such as “I can see through you”, hinting at what they have witnessed. On Carol’s blog you can see and read how the work was developed right through to installation.

Bob Smith’s paintings of cloth and clothing were impressive in combining work on a grand scale with subtle layers of almost hidden detail, all in a striking orange palette. But I’m sorry, just not to my taste – I need the depth and extra dimensions that textile art delivers!   

Do have a look at the website, there’s a lot of info and pics on there. And if you missed this exhibition, as I so nearly did (never saw much publicity), Cloth and Memory 2 will take place in 2013.

 

 

 

 

  

 

There are images here and