Latest Exhibition – OBS

The Old Big School Gallery in Tonbridge is where my current touring one-man exhibition is being displayed. Thanks very much to all at Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre, Cwmbran for setting up this tour and also to all those involved at the OBS Gallery for installation, maintenance and promotion throughout. The exhibition runs until 3rd March, 2024 and I will be giving a talk/presentation on Monday evening 26th February.

Photos below show what a beautiful space the gallery is and thank you again to Russell Harper of @harperphoto for the images he took.

 

 

exhibition screenshot

A video tour for those who couldn’t get there

Interactive Tapestries as exhibited at Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre 25th July – 20th August 2022 and now available for other interested venues.

The content of the show spans just over 20 years in order to show examples of the development of my use of barbed wire in weaving followed by the inclusion of sound. 

See the 3 min video below.

In this post I am focusing on my tapestries Interconnection and Metamorphosis (see below). Information and images about my use of barbed wire in my weaving can be found here and I have written an introduction to my use of sound and interaction here on my website.

Sound on this video is live from the exhibition.

Interconnection

The design for this tapestry was developed intuitively over the year it took to weave. I had the basic idea in my mind and had scribbled notes and ideas in my sketchbook, but not many details. The design is about our interconnection with the environment, both natural and man made and the conflict within that relationship, hence the barbed wire being in amongst the unspun alpaca wool at the bottom of the tapestry.

The tapestry has a 50 minute looping soundscape – a field recording of a walk I took up my local hills and the interactive audio reflects aspects of both natural and man made environments.

Metamorphosis

This tapestry is the exception to the design themes in this exhibition. Whilst all my work is a personal response to different aspects of conflict, communication and the environment, this piece is deeply personal. It is my response to the death of my parents within a week of each other in 2018.

There is a 10.5 minute looping soundscape which is composed largely of audio generated on the computer and also includes recordings of my parents’ voices. Much of the soundscape is based on the word “hello”, even the deep base rhythms come from this greeting spoken by my father. The interactive audio presents different aspects of their lives, including spoken words such as my mother’s oft used phrase “anything is possible” or the sound of their grandfather clock and an old slide projector.

Interconnection Tapestry
Interconnection
Metamorphosis tapestry
Metamorphosis
tapestry, weaving, loom, exhibition

Interactive Tapestry Weaving Exhibition

So last week I delivered my interactive tapestry weaving for exhibition at Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre in Cwmbran, South Wales. I have also now set up my loom with my current tapestry on it which I will be working on during the exhibition.

The opening for the exhibition is on Friday 24th June between 5 and 7 pm and all are welcome. I will be in the gallery on Saturdays and Mondays to work on my current interactive tapestry but please confirm I will be there if you are planning on a visit and expect me to be there. The exhibition continues until 20th August.

Some of the tapestries are interactive through touch or proximity which will trigger audio clips, others use QR codes to link to soundscapes I have developed for those tapestries. Other pieces are interactive through touch which simply creates movement in the work itself. Come along and enjoy!

Fabric of the North

I just managed to fit in the installation of my two interactive tapestries to the Fabric of the North exhibition before the current Covid-19 lockdown started in Wales. The exhibition is at Kirkleatham Hall Museum in Redcar until 31st January, 2021 and outside of the lockdown in England which is starting today for a month, viewing the exhibition is by booking a time slot during their opening hours.

Until the lockdown is past you can watch the video above and also view the individual works on the Fabric of the North website.

Thanks to the Arts Council of Wales National Lottery stabilisation fund grant I received and an a-n Artists Information Company Artists Bursary award, I was able to update the touch sensitive weaving of Metamorphosis to proximity sensitivity and also update the technology used in my other tapestry in the exhibition, INTERCONNECTION.

Supported by an Artists Bursary from a-n The Artists Information Company and a Stabilisation Fund grant from the Arts Council of Wales National Lottery Good Causes.

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