Thursday 6 May 2021
You are invited to join a new home stitching group called Inspired to Embroider for any one stitching anything in Norwich. We welocomme begginners as well as experienced stitcher
Our first meeting welll be on Thursday 20th May at my house
Please contact me for further details
helenann@inspiredtoembroider.com
Saturday 11 January 2014
Masterpieces: Art and East Anglia
On the 9th January 2014 some Members of the Broadlands Art Textiles group visited the Sainsbury Centre for Contemporary Art at UEA in Norwich.
Several very impressive and inspirational exhibitions of interest to textile artists have been held in recent years at SCVA so I had high expectations of the exhibition Masterpieces: Art and East Anglia. I certainly feel this exhibition is worth visiting (and indeed worth visiting again if you have been only once). It is chock full of interest. It continues until 24th February 2014.
I was delighted to see the two items from Happisburgh beach displayed together.
This Handaxe was found on the beach in 2000. It is dated to 700,000BCE and alters our view of the early inhabitants of Britain. It suggests Britain was inhabited much earlier than previously thought and is one of the most important recent archaeological finds
Happisburgh Handaxe
Unknown maker, Lower Palaeolithic, c. 700,000 BC
Flint; 12.8 x 7.9 x 3.7 cm
Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service, Norwich
Castle Museum & Art Gallery
This small sculpture was made by Henry Moore from a pebble of iron stone he found walking on the same beach in 1930 on a holiday visit. The small scale is very pleasing and the comparison with the handaxe in the same display case is interesting.
Henry Moore (1896-1986)
Reclining Figure, 1930
Ironstone; 11.5 x 17.5 x 3.5 cm
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
Reproduced by permission of
The Henry Moore Foundation
There are many artefacts of interest to the textile artist. There are a great range of design inspiration as the exhibition offers all sorts of materials on display (enamel, silver, glass, illuminated manuscripts, paintings, photographs, leather, textiles, carvings and sculpture, furniture, industrial design, models and maps). There are over 250 objects in the exhibition. One of the things I enjoyed seeing was this famous portrait by Sargent. The original dress was also on display and has interesting machine embroidery probably made using a Cornely machine.
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Portrait of the Marchioness of Cholmondeley, 1922
Oil on canvas; 161 x 93 cm
Private Collection
Photo: Pete Huggins
Worth Dress
(as worn by the Marchioness of Cholmondeley)
House of Charles Frederick Worth, 1922
Private Collection
Photo: Pete Huggins
It was a rainy weekday and the exhibition was busy and well attended with a buzz of interest as people explored and discussed their favourite items. The exhibition was large and disabled access using a lift was available to the lower floor but there was a lot of ground to cover. There were folding portable chairs available on the lower floor so you could rest in comfort near of an item of interest.
As I have said there were lots of interesting things to see. At the same time, some aspects of the exhibition concerned me. One of the key problems for me was the layout the exhibition. For example: The handaxe and its juxtaposition with the Henry Moore are described as the starting point for the exhibiton but to get to these items you have to travel through the rest of the exhibition.
There were several themes and ideas explored in the exhibition. The thematic arrangement meant that there isn’t a simple chronological order and the geography of East Anglia was not explored as fully as I felt it might have been. The reason for including items was not always clear. I couldn’t always immediately fathom the item’s links to East Anglia. In general the labels were clear (though not always well lit). I felt one still needed quite a lot of prior knowledge to fully enjoy the exhibition.
Some items were not as well displayed as I would have liked. An example of this would be “Farewell Festival.” the Akenfield engraved vase by Sir Lawrence Whistler (1974). The glass engraving could not be seen because there was no contrasting background; the lighting and the viewing angle were not effective.
I think of exhibitions I have seen in Scotland or Yorkshire where national and regional identity is much more clearly defined already, however cliched this can be. In the end what it means to be a craftsman or an artist in East Anglia was, for me, still ambiguous and the search for regional identity continues. This exhibition provides a good starting point for that exploration.
Several very impressive and inspirational exhibitions of interest to textile artists have been held in recent years at SCVA so I had high expectations of the exhibition Masterpieces: Art and East Anglia. I certainly feel this exhibition is worth visiting (and indeed worth visiting again if you have been only once). It is chock full of interest. It continues until 24th February 2014.
I was delighted to see the two items from Happisburgh beach displayed together.
This Handaxe was found on the beach in 2000. It is dated to 700,000BCE and alters our view of the early inhabitants of Britain. It suggests Britain was inhabited much earlier than previously thought and is one of the most important recent archaeological finds
Unknown maker, Lower Palaeolithic, c. 700,000 BC
Flint; 12.8 x 7.9 x 3.7 cm
Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service, Norwich
Castle Museum & Art Gallery
Reclining Figure, 1930
Ironstone; 11.5 x 17.5 x 3.5 cm
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
Reproduced by permission of
The Henry Moore Foundation
Portrait of the Marchioness of Cholmondeley, 1922
Oil on canvas; 161 x 93 cm
Private Collection
Photo: Pete Huggins
(as worn by the Marchioness of Cholmondeley)
House of Charles Frederick Worth, 1922
Private Collection
Photo: Pete Huggins
As I have said there were lots of interesting things to see. At the same time, some aspects of the exhibition concerned me. One of the key problems for me was the layout the exhibition. For example: The handaxe and its juxtaposition with the Henry Moore are described as the starting point for the exhibiton but to get to these items you have to travel through the rest of the exhibition.
There were several themes and ideas explored in the exhibition. The thematic arrangement meant that there isn’t a simple chronological order and the geography of East Anglia was not explored as fully as I felt it might have been. The reason for including items was not always clear. I couldn’t always immediately fathom the item’s links to East Anglia. In general the labels were clear (though not always well lit). I felt one still needed quite a lot of prior knowledge to fully enjoy the exhibition.
Some items were not as well displayed as I would have liked. An example of this would be “Farewell Festival.” the Akenfield engraved vase by Sir Lawrence Whistler (1974). The glass engraving could not be seen because there was no contrasting background; the lighting and the viewing angle were not effective.
I think of exhibitions I have seen in Scotland or Yorkshire where national and regional identity is much more clearly defined already, however cliched this can be. In the end what it means to be a craftsman or an artist in East Anglia was, for me, still ambiguous and the search for regional identity continues. This exhibition provides a good starting point for that exploration.
Monday 3 March 2008
Cloth and Culture Now Exhibition Review
Cloth and Culture Now Exhibition Review
Cloth and Culture Now is an exhibition of modern Textile Artists work from the Baltic States, Japan and the UK and is well worth taking the time to see
Firstly something about the venue, The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts is a fascinating building (though unprepossessing from the outside) designed by Norman Foster and opened in 1978. The centre houses an interesting permanent collection and has recently been home to some inspirational touring exhibitions. The Sainsbury Centre is situated at the far side of the UEA campus and there are pleasant walks nearby and good coffee and restaurant facilities. On the day I visited parking was difficult but the exhibition was enough of a pleasant distraction that I forgot the hassle very quickly. The exhibition is in two parts on the main floor and down the external ramp (which I much prefer to the vertiginous spiral staircase) to the new display space
There is work from Estonia Finland Japan Latvia Lithuania and the United Kingdom.
Hand and machine methods are used and the pieces vary between structural installations and more traditional forms of textile presentation. Often undefined but sometimes vividly expressed through the artworks is the tragedy of the last century’s conflicts and their effects on vanishing folk culture.
All these communities have strong folk traditions and it was interesting that themes the textile arts expressed were not always obviously nationalistic. There were pieces, which I knew before I read the label were from a particular culture and others where they could have come from the east or the west. All have (I think) a northern feel to them; the British pieces are largely in subdued muddy colours. Comparisons have been made between the different aspects of class-consciousness and politeness in Japan and Britain. Finland Estonia Latvia and Lithuania all border the Baltic Sea and lie between Sweden and Russia and it could be argued that there is a search for a new national identity through the reinterpretation of folk tradition shown in many of the textile pieces. The illustrations with this article show some of the large architectural installations.
There was a wide range of techniques including the use of some unusual materials and much of my pleasure in the exhibition was in the “how was it done” examination of pieces. A piece that impressed me very much was by Masaaki Tate. The pattern is made with dye wax and pulled thread it really does not photograph and was very simple and effective. Another deceptively simple piece is the button leaves which are by Mitsuo Toyazki They set the sense of domestic and mundane against the strong visual pleasure of the design while not strictly textile certainly were fun to see. For me it is that conflict between utilitarian and artistic interpretation that makes textiles so interesting a visual medium and this is very cleverly explored by Severiha Incirauskaite-Krianeviciene who works cross stitch patterns on found objects. She is critical of the created folksy identity but also wants to add value to everyday thrown away items. Katrin Petri whose work has hand stitches worked on layers of fabric on a large scale says “ I sometimes think I have to find a new way of working, and when I turn back to my stitching I realise that this is the way I am happiest working, this is what I can do and is best for the work”
The exhibition is well laid out and beautifully lit which I think is very important for textiles so that they retain their textural quality. There are no activities for kids and there is no additional of interactivity in the exhibition itself. It is simply a very stricking visual experience.
The exhibition leaves the Sainsbury Centre on June the 1st and goes to Manchester.
Useful web links
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
Cloth and Culture Now is an exhibition of modern Textile Artists work from the Baltic States, Japan and the UK and is well worth taking the time to see
Firstly something about the venue, The Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts is a fascinating building (though unprepossessing from the outside) designed by Norman Foster and opened in 1978. The centre houses an interesting permanent collection and has recently been home to some inspirational touring exhibitions. The Sainsbury Centre is situated at the far side of the UEA campus and there are pleasant walks nearby and good coffee and restaurant facilities. On the day I visited parking was difficult but the exhibition was enough of a pleasant distraction that I forgot the hassle very quickly. The exhibition is in two parts on the main floor and down the external ramp (which I much prefer to the vertiginous spiral staircase) to the new display space
There is work from Estonia Finland Japan Latvia Lithuania and the United Kingdom.
Hand and machine methods are used and the pieces vary between structural installations and more traditional forms of textile presentation. Often undefined but sometimes vividly expressed through the artworks is the tragedy of the last century’s conflicts and their effects on vanishing folk culture.
All these communities have strong folk traditions and it was interesting that themes the textile arts expressed were not always obviously nationalistic. There were pieces, which I knew before I read the label were from a particular culture and others where they could have come from the east or the west. All have (I think) a northern feel to them; the British pieces are largely in subdued muddy colours. Comparisons have been made between the different aspects of class-consciousness and politeness in Japan and Britain. Finland Estonia Latvia and Lithuania all border the Baltic Sea and lie between Sweden and Russia and it could be argued that there is a search for a new national identity through the reinterpretation of folk tradition shown in many of the textile pieces. The illustrations with this article show some of the large architectural installations.
There was a wide range of techniques including the use of some unusual materials and much of my pleasure in the exhibition was in the “how was it done” examination of pieces. A piece that impressed me very much was by Masaaki Tate. The pattern is made with dye wax and pulled thread it really does not photograph and was very simple and effective. Another deceptively simple piece is the button leaves which are by Mitsuo Toyazki They set the sense of domestic and mundane against the strong visual pleasure of the design while not strictly textile certainly were fun to see. For me it is that conflict between utilitarian and artistic interpretation that makes textiles so interesting a visual medium and this is very cleverly explored by Severiha Incirauskaite-Krianeviciene who works cross stitch patterns on found objects. She is critical of the created folksy identity but also wants to add value to everyday thrown away items. Katrin Petri whose work has hand stitches worked on layers of fabric on a large scale says “ I sometimes think I have to find a new way of working, and when I turn back to my stitching I realise that this is the way I am happiest working, this is what I can do and is best for the work”
The exhibition is well laid out and beautifully lit which I think is very important for textiles so that they retain their textural quality. There are no activities for kids and there is no additional of interactivity in the exhibition itself. It is simply a very stricking visual experience.
The exhibition leaves the Sainsbury Centre on June the 1st and goes to Manchester.
Useful web links
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts
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