TEXTILE PRACTICE

activism

noun

the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change.

The way I see it, activism is fighting to make a change for what you believe in. Not fighting in the sense of violence or aggression, but through the act of protesting and campaigning, striking, boycotting. There are so many social and political views from different people with different opinions that there is bound to be disagreement and clashing of beliefs. The way people choose to act in how they portray their beliefs, how they try to make changes to the current political and social affairs, that is activism. 

When the word ‘activism’ is entered into an online thesaurus, these are the words that are classed as similar or alternative with the same meaning;

- http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/activism?s=t

I think this is interesting, as one of the first words is ‘militancy’ which suggests aggression. Activism is not necessarily aggressive, so why is it automatically detected as so? I found the definition of the word from this thesaurus hit the nail on the head. ‘Change’. Activism is change. I think that gives the fullest and most accurate definition of all those that I have seen. It does not suggest violence or aggression, it does not suggest protest, it’s just change.

As well known, the John Lewis christmas advert is extremely popular every year, to the point people claim they start to feel christmassy as soon as they see it. They are always very touching, but this year was extra special in my opinion.

This year it’s about the elderly being lonely and isolated at Christmas, and the importance of combatting this issue by showing someone they are loved this Christmas. It’s a horrific thought that there are so many elderly people that can go days, even weeks without any contact with other people because they have nobody. Even elderly people who do have family and loved ones can go so long without seeing anyone, and it’s difficult because I suppose when people reach a certain age and they end up on their own, they can feel so forgotten about or invisible. This advert isn't just a meaningless Christmas Advert though, as John Lewis actually teamed up with Age UK to raise awareness of this issue. Age UK are a charity that dedicate everything to helping elderly people in any way they can. The fact that John Lewis teamed up with Age UK for this project makes it especially touching as they actually want to make a difference and raise awareness, rather than get an emotional response out of the audience. 

After watching the video that tells us all about the Transparent Boundaries project and what it’s all about, I have gained a higher understanding on the aim of the group. As it’s a nationwide project, they decide that the marginalised community they all have in common are the elderly. They talk about how when you reach a certain age you become invisible and I think thats what the project is all about. They have devised workshops and techniques to engage the elder and prevent them from feeling invisible. It’s very nice for elderly people to be surrounded by people for once as they can often be alone for the majority of the time, and I think this was one of the main things this project was targeting. 

When they were trying to come up with which term for the elderly was most suitable and appropriate, they seemed to struggle to choose a word which would not offend or upset. When they decided on elder, they said it implies a sense of wisdom. I think elder is one of the best terms they could use because it does not necessarily sound as aged as some of the other possible words.

- http://carorose.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54ed11f4b8833016302c8f8c2970d-800wi

The Rajah Quilt

The Rajah Quilt is an amazing piece of textiles, which was created in 1841, aboard a convict ship called the Rajah that held 180 women prisoners, which was set to sail to Van Diemen’s Land. The quilt measures 325 by 327 centimetres in total, which is extremely large for a piece of textile and would have required great skill and technique to make. In 1816, Elizabeth Fry, who was a prison reformer and social reformer, was concerned about the welfare of women prisoners during transportation, and decided to form the quaker group ‘British Ladies Society for the Reformation of Female Prisoners’. One of the main things the society did for prisoners was to offer them packs of sewing equipment to keep them occupied during their imprisonment. These included equipment such as materials, needles, various threads, pins, scissors and many more sewing necessities. 

“When the Rajah arrived in Hobart on 19 July 1841, these supplies had been turned into the inscribed patchwork, embroidered and appliquéd coverlet now known as the Rajah quilt.” - http://nga.gov.au/rajahquilt/

I think it’s wonderful that women had the opportunity to be so creative during their incarceration. Being given materials to sew and create textiles with is amazing because it is such a productive and enjoyable thing to do. I can imagine the amount of time women spent incarcerated would seem a lot shorter due to activities such as these. I think it’s really interesting that this was a technique used to try and reform the prisoners. Textiles is a really calming and therapeutic activity, and I can see why they thought it may have helped reform the prisoners.

As I have been looking at Lowry’s work which is based around the North of England, I decided to visit an art gallery in a small northern town called Spennymoor and check out some of the local art. I looked at two artists work, and actually got to meet them both and talk about their work with them. The first artist I spoke with was Derek Slater. He had two full rooms in the exhibition full of his work. He mainly works with oil paints on canvas, but some of his pencil sketches were displayed. Most of the work he was exhibiting belonged to a collection based on colliery and mining, which ties in perfectly with the industrial northern England theme I’m exploring. When asked what his work was about, Slater said “My work is inspired by my time working in collieries remembering the hazards miners faced while working underground. My ecological paintings come from my concerns about the plight of our planet and the creatures whose existence is treated by man.”. I think the fact that Slater has experienced first hand what life was like working in the mines will definitely bring a sense of depth and real meaning to his work. I certainly think this shows in his work as it strikes an emotional chord upon looking at it.

- “Bait Time” - Derek Slater

This was one of my favourite paintings of Slaters. It’s oil on canvas. I have noticed that the colours Slater uses are a ongoing theme throughout this collection, and they tend to be very vibrant which I wouldn’t of expected considering the theme of this work. The colours in this painting are mainly shades of a turquoise-blue and a touch of red. These colours are only used in the foreground of the picture, which work well in contrast to the more dull browny colour used in the background. Although the background is duller than the front of the painting, it still has colourful brushstrokes blended in to the brown, the same blue is used, also hits of purple, green and orange. I don’t know how Slater managed to make this work as it’s such an odd use of colour but I really feel like it’s a spectacular use of colour, it almost works as shading. I wouldn’t say there is much organisation to the colour, mainly because on the wooden panels in the background it seems that random colours have been added into it, and the blue featured on the apparel of the men is loosely blended with other shades. But this is not to say I don’t admire his use of colour, as I think the colour in this painting is one of its best features. I think the use of bold colour and the thick brushstrokes compliment each other, and it probably wouldn’t have been so effective without one another. I think Slater has the balance between the two spot on, and not many artists tend to use bright colours with thick brushstrokes as it can be a bit over powering, but he seems to have perfected that combination in this painting. One of the things I like most about this painting is the texture. There is so much going on in this painting with colour and brushstrokes and tone, and the smooth texture finishes it all off perfectly. I think if the surface of the painting was rough it would take the attention away from all the important elements. The texture is very smooth and lustre, and I think this compliments the thick brush strokes quite well, in the sense that it makes the brush strokes look soft, almost like they melt into each other. It creates a lovely, dreamy effect. I think this is a very atmospheric painting. The colours and the meaning behind the painting all contribute to creating a melancholy effect. Looking at this painting made me feel rather sombre, as I had never given much thought to how life must have been working in the mines, mainly because I’m of an age that means I was too young to see how it affected people. I was told by my dad when we visited the gallery that my grandfather actually worked in the mines for a while when he was young, which I didn’t previously know, so I think it hit home for me a bit when I imagined my grandfather working in mines. He had said to my dad that working in the mines was the worst experience of his life, and my grandfather was a pretty tough cookie so it really made me realise how bad it was. It’s an unsettling thought to imagine people working in mines in such conditions. I love when a painting can bring you to such deep thought so I really appreciated seeing Derek Slater’s work and hearing first hand from him what it was like to work in a colliery. I feel as though I learnt a lot from visiting this exhibition.

The second artists work I looked at was Tim Sutherland’s. His work includes a lot of paintings, and some photography. The topic of his exhibition was dramatically different from Derek Slaters and I enjoyed the contrast between the two. I want to attach a few photos of his work underneath as I just loved all of his work and I can’t seem to narrow it down to one painting that I favoured the most.

- “Eternity Calling” - Tim Sutherland 

- “Morven-Caithness” - Tim Sutherland

 - “We Simply Cannot Stay” - Tim Sutherland

- “Night Garden”- Tim Sutherland

This was my favourite painting of Tim’s in the exhibition. It’s an acrylic on canvas. The mood of the painting drew me in straight away. I love how the painting is clearly set at night time and the colours used reflect this perfectly. It’s almost as if the house in the centre is aglow in contrast to the dark sky and surroundings. I think the use of colour over all in this painting is great, the only colours used are blue, and a touch of red. The different shades of blue ranging from a pale blue/white to a dark midnight blue/black fade into each other wonderfully. There are also hints of a grey-blue included in places. I like the shapes in this painting as they are not 100% realistic, the house is more of a naive shape than life like, which brings a certain sense of playfulness and comfort to the painting in my opinion. It reminds me of a dream land that I just want to step into and explore. Although the colours in this painting are very much cold colours, I think the painting has a real sense of warmth to it, it seems welcoming, like a place I could envision myself in. I love the use of red in this painting. It’s a very scarce and subtle use of red, as it’s only on the deer, and a few flowers. I think it definitely finishes the painting off nicely, and when I thought about it, I couldn't imagine another colour which would have went as well as red does. It’s a lovely finishing touch, and I love how the deer is made to stand out against the background setting. In terms of shapes, I notice a lot of circles and curves. Mainly in the trees, but even the little white balls of glowing sky in the background. I can see more curves in the grass in the bottom left, and the shading of the painting on the house, and the hedge in front of the house. Also in the sky above. There are a few circular boulder looking objects at the front of the other building in the painting. To me, the circles tie in with the softness and warmth of the painting. There are no harsh edges on circles, and they are a very smooth shape, where as if there were a lot of square or triangle shapes, it would seem a lot harsher due to the sharp edges. The use of circles also reminds me of planet earth, and I think this painting is a perfect representation of humans and nature at work together to create perfect harmony and beauty. I remember this painting being quite big, which I enjoyed because I got to explore the paintings details more than I would if it were a small canvas. As I got to meet Tim at the exhibition, I was able to ask him a few questions about his work. The thing that has seemed to stick with me the most is about this painting. He told me that this is a real house, and it’s a family members house that he had visited and decided to paint. It amazes me that this is a real place, this painting creates more of an abstract place, like a dreamland, when in fact it’s a real house that exists somewhere in the world. I love how Tim decided to portray this setting, he made it look magical.

In this weeks ‘Thinking the Future Through the Past’ lecture, we explored different types of archives. For our blog task we were told to write about an area of the lecture that interested us. The area that intrigued me the most was the concept of a time capsule. To create a time capsule is not a common thing to do, but it is a perfect example of an archive. This is not something I had previously considered, or a way of creating an archive that I had thought about. 

We were shown an example of this by Andy Warhol. Warhol began creating time capsules when he relocated to a new studio, and decided to box his belongings up. These belongings included every day objects such as; papers, art materials, magazines, photographs etc. He would leave an open box on his desk, and add to it every so often, placing the items in the box as he walked by it. Then once the box was full, he would seal it with tape, and add the date, then add it to his archive. This is an incredibly useful concept because it gives us an insight into his life. We can learn a lot from items he used every day and decided to store away. He used this process from the early 70′s, up until his death in 1987. He created 612 sealed archive boxes in this time. This is of incredible use as it will almost create a timeline of his life. You would be able to see how the objects varied and changed as the years go by, according to the current cultural and social scene at that particular point in time. Warhol’s archival boxes were practically unknown about until his death. 

- http://www.warhol.org/edu_additional.aspx?id=7016

Bailey , R.B. (20/11/2015). Thought Positions in Sculpture. Retrieved from; https://www.hud.ac.uk/research/researchcentres/st/thoughtpositionsinsculpture/

“Thought Positions in Sculpture presents ten contemporary artists who have encountered the archive through the stories of their own art practice. The physical exhibition at Huddersfield Art Gallery refers to existing works of art from Leeds Museums and Galleries Sculpture Collection, archival material from the Henry Moore Institute, digitised archival material from the Tate Gallery, audio material from the British Library and other archival sites, some of which are inventions by the artist themselves.”

As part of our ‘Thinking the Future Through the Past’ section in our Theoretical and Ethical studies lectures, we visited the ‘Thought Positions in Sculpture’ exhibition at Huddersfield Art Gallery. We visited this exhibition due to the fact it displayed the work of 10 contemporary artists, whose work was created through the use of archives, which is key to what we are studying in our lectures. We are looking at the importance of archives and how we can incorporate them into current work.

Looking at how the art pieces are ordered or arranged I did not initially think there was any form of particular arrangement or order, until I looked at the guide we picked up and realised that different pieces around the room were linked with each other. The pieces that were linked were not all next to each other which was confusing at first but after reading about the pieces, this made it more intriguing as I had to walk around the room and find the different parts of the pieces. I feel like the balance in the room was just right, as there were some wall pieces, and sculptures, but none too near each other so that it was too busy or clustered. This made the exhibition more enjoyable for me as the space was clean and easy to find your way round. 

We were told that the work in the exhibition had all been inspired by or created from archives. It took a while for me to understand how the work was linked with archives, and it certainly didn’t happen at the first glance of the work. Reading the guide and seeing which pieces were linked with each other helped a lot, as they often featured the piece that was the archive that either inspired their work, or that they had created their work from. I enjoyed doing this because as I read about the pieces that went together, and studied them in the exhibition, a kind of story unraveled in my head and I put myself in the artist’s shoes and tried to understand their thought process. I tried to imagine how they interpreted the archive, and how they created their pieces from them. 

In this exhibition I found it really interesting to see the inspiration behind the art for once. Every artist has a source of inspiration, or a muse that they work from, and in this exhibition it was put in front of us to see, along with their work. This was en element which made it different to any other exhibition I had previously seen.

Jill Townsley - Stones

Of all the artists that were featured in this exhibition, Jill Townsley’s work stood out to me the most, because it intrigued me to find out the purpose behind the art. Jill Townsley opted to create her own archive in this project. She started by collecting 100 stones from the riverbed of the River Colne. She picked the stones at random so they came in all shapes and sizes. After she had collected the stones she studied them, then named and numbered them. She then measured the stones, and photographed them all individually, which was one of the pieces in her collection. This process was archive 1. In archive 2, she painted the stones in 25 different colours of nail varnish, all of which she purchased at a local shop in Marsden. She organised the colours and displayed the stones chromatically. She also used the original names from the nail varnish bottles and gave the names to the stones that she painted in that colour. This process was her way of recreating the archive, in the sense that all the features of the old stones were now gone, painted over. It became a whole new archive. I found this idea interesting as I never really gave much thought to taking an archive, changing it and updating it, to create a whole new concept and archive. In archive 3, the painted stones were scattered randomly onto a plinth, which she then displayed as the final piece of her work in the exhibition. Scattering the stones randomly was her way of simulating the stones returning to the river bed. She says, “No longer would they blend with the river bottom community. Their city like shine, their synthetic coats betray the process they have experienced.” I loved this concept of taking something, changing it and updating it, and creating a whole new archive and piece of history from it. The fact she chose to update old stones from a river bed by painting them in bright colours, so that they would stand out in their original habitat, really interested me. I felt engaged by the project and compelled to follow the story until I understood the thought process behind it fully.