Touchy Textiles

Very excited to be taking part in the  Antiuniversity Now Festival with a workshop and exhibition at Limehouse Town Hall, 22nd June 2019.

Exhibition

I was delighted to show my work in the beautiful, decaying splendour of Limehouse Town Hall. The architectural details really added a new dimension to my work - being in such an amazing space was a dream come true!

This series of soft sculptures plays with the nurturing associations of textiles, by shaping familial fabrics, such as woollen blankets, knitting and upholstery into uncanny biomorphic forms. The work takes inspiration from Sigmund Freud’s essay Das Unheimliche (The Uncanny, 1919), referring to the repression of a once familiar object or experience from childhood, which when rediscovered induces unease, or fear.

Workshop

The day also featured a workshop, where we explored layering, patching and darning as a metaphor for mental healing and buried emotions.

Textiles are intertwined with everyday life – they are with us from birth to death, and mark many of life’s important events. The tactile sensation of touch, can evoke past memories of nurture and security, or elicit feelings of disgust and apprehension. The session focused on:-

• Quilting, using multi-layers to symbolise buried emotions and memories.

• Darning and patching, as a metaphor for emotional repair and healing.

• Texture and colour, using both stitch and appliqué, to explore moods and feelings.

Aimed at adults of all levels, the participants were able to combine stitch with mixed media, to create their own textile piece.