from the PUP

New Tapestries and Coming Out of Lockdown

Two new tapestries finished and an exhibition re-opening – can’t be bad!

Firstly, the exhibition that is re-opening and running for an extended period is the Fabric of the North show at Kirkleatham Hall Museum in Redcar. It opens again on 18th May and will run until the end of 2021. My tapestries will only be there until October.

The first of the two new tapestries are “from the PUP” which will be on exhibition as part of the BTG Threads in Sheds show at Whitchurch Silk Mill from 11th September- 21st November 2021 and then Farfield Mill in Sedburgh from 5th January – 27th March 2022.

The second of the new tapestries is another interactive audio work for the Solway Branch of the British Tapestry Group exhibition at Gracefield Arts Centre from 11th September – 30th November 2021.

Short videos and more information about both these tapestries can be found on my Sound and Weave page.

Supported by an Artists Bursary from a-n the Artists Information Company

ACW logos

Progress

Progress

Stop, start, stop, start, hesitate, consider, wonder, decide, change, update, progress.

That could describe this past year with pandemic lockdowns and it has been stressful.

However, due to the a-n Artists Bursary and Arts Council of Wales National Lottery Good Causes funding I received, I have been able to carry on developing my work and make progress both in the area of interactivity technology (thanks again a-n) and, produce new work for exhibition and develop design ideas for further interactive work.

I am still not quite finished my Electric Brae tapestry (see previous post) as I had to break off from that in order to weave another piece for submission to The British Tapestry Group exhibition Threads in Sheds. This is another small tapestry, from the PUP, with the design based around illusion, a tapestry which I can see being made in another version on a much larger scale and with interactive sound. The tapestry needed to include silk as the exhibition is being hosted initially by Whitchurch Silk Mill in Hampshire. I hope my tapestry is accepted for this.

While I have not finished the weaving of the Electric Brae tapestry, I have managed to progress with the audio interactive element of the work, producing a manipulated audio track to accompany the work. You can listen to this on Bandcamp (headphone recommended) along with other works such as Metamorphosis, produced for my tapestry of the same name.

Further progress has been made, and this as a result of the Covid-19 lockdowns! In December/January I delivered a series of masterclasses via Zoom in designing for sound and weave. I learned as much from this as anyone else with regard to the use of Zoom to deliver workshops. Having now attended numerous Zoom sessions and held multiple meetings on that platform, I then took some very useful training in the delivery of practical workshops online.

This will come in very handy when providing the sessions I have been invited to deliver to different groups to accompany exhibitions and as part of a Summit organised by Tania Marion of Talaterra in the US for freelance educators and organisations on Perception in the Environment – Interpreting Water. Exciting stuff!

Supported by an Artists Bursary from a-n the Artists Information Company

ACW logos