Tapestry Weaving Exhibition

Back in August I wrote a post entitled Interactive Art, in which I mentioned that I was hoping to go to an exhibition to see the wonderful work of Alastair Duncan.

I went!

Here is a photo he sent me of his piece for me to share with you

The pale leaf shapes are wire and when they are touched they play a sound.

On Sunday 20th, I went to the Exhibition in London, at the Espacio Gallery, Bethnal Green Road, curated by Margaret Jones

who had taken over 500 hours to weave her beautiful diptych, ‘The Fallen’

It was wonderful to chat to Margaret and hear about her passion for weaving and how she had invited exhibitors from all over the world to be part of this exhibition.

Joanne Soroka‘s richly textured piece, ‘Another Country’,  reminded me of Australia

The dreamy ‘Strandsong’ by Joan Baxter, (if you click on her name the link will take you to a rather beautiful video of her) reminded me of blissful hours spent wandering along the strandline, beachcombing

I did not take the details of this striking piece – wish I had now

And this one was more needle-weaving than tapestry but intriguing all the same

casting delicate shadows on the walls.

If you would like to see more of the tapestries, go to the Heallreaf Instagram Page.

My favourite was Alastair’s, and I loved the interactivity of it

As you touched the leaves it activated sounds, which you could listen to individually or if you touched two at once or several in quick succession you could layer or weave the sounds together and create a soundscape. There were a couple of sounds of people laughing which was a surprise and made me laugh too. It would have been great to have had the sounds playing out into the room so that several people could play at once.

One of the most thrilling aspects of the day for me was to meet up with two fellow textile artitsts from the Stitchbook Collective. That’s Tracey in the photo above. We all enjoyed the exhibition and meeting and chatting to Margaret and afterwards we went to a nearby cafe to chat some more about the Stitchbook Collective, and share our own textile stories.

We discovered that we had all made a Sawdust Heart, and this created another rather special, bond. Tracey (in the middle) runs textile classes and if you are in the Cambridge area (UK) and are interested in taking a class, send me a message via the CONTACT ME page and I will pass on her email address to you.

It was such a joy to meet with two more of Helen Birmingham’s happy band of stitchers. (Cathy is another)

The link (Helen’s) takes you to an article written in the Scarborough News (annoying ads alert)

A quote from Helen from the article:

I like this quotation ascribed to the Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384-322 BC): “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.”

 

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Somerset House 4

Now for a quick dash through some of the exhibits as my penultimate post about this fantasmagorical exhibition! Come on – keep up!

First up, Full Spectrum:  Australia’s Celebration of gay marriage being accepted by law

I liked the way the rainbow lights shone out of the darkness in such a playful way – metaphorically beautiful.

Next a room to make you giddy with exotic scents and mesmerizing patterns

from  Hong Kong, Sensorial Estates: lift the lids and inhale deeply! Heady stuff!

And now a quick trip to Guatamala. This exhibit really deserves more time – click on the link to discover more and see much better photos. Such a great project.

Closer to home: Dundee and Shpeel

Each button on the black box, when pressed created a different light effect on the wall and different sounds. It was fun to play with these and feel like a conductor of light and sound. I played for some time here and  it got even better when I was joined by a group of students – I got a tiny teeny titchy sense of what it must be like to be Jean Michel Jarre! Ha!

 

Lastly, for this post, kaleidoscopic doodles from Saudi Arabia – blurred because they were constantly moving. Oh how I would love to be able to do this with my mandala doodles.

It makes me feel charged with electricity just thinking about it! A mandala doodle as a kaleidoscopic mirrored wall – oh my goodness wouldn’t that be trippy!

Gosh I have to stop now and go off into my mandala-doodle-filled fantasy – I might be lost all day!

Click on the links to discover more about each exhibit.

See you soon with my last post about the London Design Biennial at Somerset House.

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In one corner of the courtyard there was Turkey’s contribution to the London Design Biennial exhibition, a cube made of white rods embedded with lights. You can read a description/explanation here. It is called ‘Home’, but I did not find any resonance with the title or the explanation. I did enjoy it though, it must have looked wonderful at night. The best bit was watching how others interacted with the space. There were some gorgeous romantic photographs being taken of girlfriends, couples and family groups, who all seemed to glow within this white space.

It got me thinking how wonderful it would be to have an exhibition of spaces/settings that would be perfect for photographic portraits. For instance, Rachel Whiteread’s sculptures would be perfect.

Click on any photo to see it larger

There was an exhibit ‘Kiss in Budapest’. The idea was that a person would enter from either end and kiss in the middle – outside the booth their picture would be displayed againt the backdrop of live webcam photos of places in Budapest. Fun idea.

Inside Somerset House room after room was filled with interactive exhibits.

This one from Qatar

I could only get a faint floral whiff from a couple of the domes, maybe I needed to be taller, but I did like the shape of the carpet.

On to Germany’s exhibit of recycled household items

I loved this standard lamp made of bottle tops, maybe I’ll try a table lamp one day.

Made from Beach Clean too – win-win!

Here are a couple of  links if you would like to read more about the Exhibition

Kiss in Budapest FB page.

‘Culture Trip’

Somerset House FB Page

Somerset House on Instagram

 

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Last Friday I went to London to stay with Son number 2 and his family, but first a bit of art at Somerset House where they are holding the London Design Biennial

‘Emotional States’

40 countries participated

In the courtyard there were several pieces of interactive art/sculpture – my favourite type of art.

Greece provided a wobbly walkway that was entitled (click on the title to see the description)

ΑΝΥΠΑΚΟΗ

My own experience of it emphasized that every step we take has an impact.

As you entered the sides expanded and opened up, with a creaky sound, each step made the next section open up for you, each step felt a bit wobbly

so you had to think about keeping your balance. It was made of recycled plastic.

A whole body experience has an impact on all the senses – every step I take makes a difference …  to something, or somebody.

If I know it in my body, I know it forever.

There was so much to see and interact with in the whole exhibition, and as you can imagine I took hundreds of photos. It is taking me a while to process the photos and the feelings that each exhibit evoked …… more to come.

Light

My visit to the Tate Modern on Friday 10th November, was the perfect start to my birthday weekend

The Exchange is a room in the new building at the Tate for interactive projects. I didn’t stop to make a lampshade but did watch a few people doing it. You can get a free cuppa in the Tate Exchange Room – worth knowing!

The exibition in the Turbine Hall, by three Danish artists from an artists’ Collective called SUPERFLEX is also interactive – read all about it here. And see a photo of the artists here,

‘Interactive’ is my favourite form of art.

This exhibit strongly relies on LIGHT and reflection. You can lie on a stripey carpet and watch the huge shiny ball as it swings overhead….

Click on any photo to see it in more detail.

Lots of people were enjoying the bubbles this Mum was blowing as they walked up the carpet.

Whole families could swing together in the rest of the hall, it was fun.

This next picture is taken from a bridge that connects the two buildings.

overview

broken by split layers

Tate Modern

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One-a-week Photo Challenge, prompt: LIGHT

To join in, leave a link in the Comments to your post – past or present.

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and joining in with Ronovan’s Haiku Challenge, prompts: BROKEN and OVER