Happy New Year!

Happy New Year and all the best for 2025. Let's hope for peace.

Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles

Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles

at Warwick Arts Centre.

Material Worlds: Contemporary Artists and Textiles explores how artists are using textiles in surprising and radical ways. There is a definite 'wow' factor as one enters the exhibition: the intimate and domestic nature of textiles has been transformed into theatrical, bold and humorous works that inspire and challenge.

Alexandre da Cunha, Arena, 2020, (umbrellas, metal fittings)

Concrete mixers, mop heads, walking sticks, paving stones: all of these and more are among the assorted everyday objects that Alexandre da Cunha repurposes in his work. The artist explains: 'I start by collecting objects that intrigue me, that make me question why they exist and how they are made... I liken it to casting actors, to seeing people in the street who you think might have the potential to perform something'.

The grand sweep of Arena is constructed from umbrella canopies. 'I like', says da Cunha, 'the idea of viewers encountering something beautiful with a reference to textiles and crafts and then, after recognising the object... considering notions of ... labour and global trade - how these things come from other countries and how we use them'.

Jonathan Baldock, The Caretakers, (Ceremonial Costumes 'I'm Still Learning'), 2021, (textile, rubber, foam and wood)

The craft techniques evident in the sculptures and hanging banner here - sewing, embroidery, hemming - hold personal importance for the artist, who learned many of these techniques from his grandmother. Their practical ethos continues to inform his approach: 'The crafts I employ are functional', Baldock has said. 'I'm interested in the handmade but not high-end embroidery or fine beadwork. For textile works I always use blanket stitch, which would have been used by people living in poverty who made things from scraps of material. There's also a relationship to the body: it's often the stitch used to sew people up. Even ... the hessian I use comes from plants. I'm taking [things] that might  be functional or overlooked...and elevating them in a space where they can be beautiful or monstrous'.

looking closer

Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Dual, 2006-07, (birch ply, woven fabric)

                                             Malevolent Coat Hook, 2005, (glazed earthenware)

                                             Cluny, 2006, Wall paper

Dual transforms from two chaise lounges to a pair of high-backed armchairs.

Paloma Proudfoot,  The Mannequins Reply, 2023, (glazed ceramic, embroidered gauze, fabric, cord, metal bolts)

In this ceramic relief Proudfoot uses assemblages inspired by clothing techniques and pattern cutting.

Holy Hendry, Slacker, 2019, (steel, aluminium, motor, perspex, jesmonite, silicone, fabric, recycled plastics and aggregate)

This sculpture comprises an industrial ribbon that passes through steel rollers in a rythmic motion. 

The flowing band has been cut and moulded to reveal diagrammatic imagery from medical journals and DIY manuals. The curators tell us that this is a metaphor for the body's entangled relationship with technology - both dissected and reassembled through industrial means.

Phyllida Barlow, Untitled, Canvasracks, 2018-19, (concrete, cotton-duck canvas, hardboard, paint, plastic, plywood, steel, tape, timber)

Over the course of her career, Barlow explored the possibilities of large-scale, anti-monumental sculpture. Using low-grade, inexpensive materials such as cardboard, fabric, plywood, plysterene, plaster and cement, Barlow's sculptures disrupt our perception of their surroundings, engating viewers through an interplay of physical scale and conceptual ambiguity.

This work's heavy concrete feet not only anchor it physically but also serve as a metaphor for the weight of history, protest and the burden of materiality itself. Draped across a skewed wooden frame, vibrant convases evoke the form of banners stripped of their usual proclamations of power. Devoid of slogans or symbols, Barlow's banners reject traditional narratives, transforming into abstract,  open-ended gestures.

You can see a similar sculpture by Barlow here

Jonathan Baldock, The Horse is a Mirror to Your Soul, 2020, (felt, hessian and bells)

Tenant of Culture, Various titles, (recycled trainers, thread, glue, paint, foam, jesmonite)

Operating under the alias Tenant of Culture, Hendrickje Schimmel has become known for her sustained and sculptural exploration of the fashion industry. The moniker draws from the French theorist Michel de Certeau's discussion of techniques that consumers might use to circumvent the strageries of producers, such as jihacking or misusing products. Practicing these tactics, Tenant of Culture disassembles, reconfigures and rebuilds manufactured fashion garments, all the while examining the ways in which societal values and power structures reveal themselves in the items' making, circulation and marketing.

The spliced shoes in these works are sourced from the garment production cycle and secondary-use fashion sites. Schimmel's process emphasises how handling materials alters preconceived ideas about construction, revealing insights into the supply chain and design intentions. While exploring these materials, she intentionally stays close to the original assembly methods to maintain a connection to fashion.

Rae-Yen Song, song dynasty ooo, 2021, Sculptural costume, (inherited fabrics, paper mache, harness)

Yinka Shonibare,  Creatures of the Mappa Munchi - Epiphagi, (patchwork, applique, embroidery and Dutch wax printed cotton textile)

Abstract Spiritual XI, 2024, (patchwork, applique, quilting, hand-cyed silk, linen and cotton and Dutch wax printed cotton)

Paul Maheke,  We Took a Sip from The Devil's Cup, 2020, (bleach on fabric, handblown glass)

The installation consists of a series of drawings bleached into fabric, and handblown glass lamps.

Yelena Popova, Keepsafe, 2020, (Jacquard woven tapestry).

Anna Perach, Venus, 2023, (hand-tufted Axminster yarn, artificial hair, beads, artificial silk, cast and blown glass, leather, metal wire on pine, birch ply and MDF table)

At the centre of Perach's investigations are issues of gender and patriarchy. The tabletop work Venus references 18th century wax sculptures known as 'anatomical Venuses', hyperreal sculptures of women designed for disassembly and the exploration of female anatomy.

The sculpture is designed to be wearable by performers. 'In my installations and performances, what I want to create is ... a space that stretches the boundaries of the goal driven, phallic order'.

Misty

Christmas day was misty.

We had a lovely walk to Old Milverton before lunch.

Merry Christmas!

The Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square

Teresa Margolles.  Mil Veces Un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant)

Mil Veces un Instante is made up of plaster casts of the faces of hundreds of transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people. Each mould was created by applying plaster directly to the participant's face and retains traces of skin, hair and eyelashes. Erosion will transform the material slowly over time.

On 22 December 2016, Karla, a transgender woman, was found murdered in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Mil Veces un Instante stands in tribute to Karla and raises awareness of the violence and abuse faced by so many, transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming people globally. This collective sculpture was made in London, Ciudad Juarez and Mexico City between 2021-2024.

It is the 15th commision for the Fourth Plinth Programme.

looking closer

 

Sunset

 Looking out of my window at the sunset last night.

Spectacular Diversions - Chila Kumari Singh Burman: part 2, Neons and Installation

Spectacular Diversions - Neons and Installation, by Chila Kumari Singh Burman

This is the second post on this exhibition. You can see the first post here

As I mentioned in my previous post, Burman is a Punjabi-British artist whose work explores cultural identity and the experiences and aesthetics of Asian femininity. Over the last 40 years her practice has encompassed printmaking, drawing, painting, installation and film to explore the intersection of feminism, race and representation, placing alternative perspectives of Britishness within art history.

In recent years Burman has become known for her colourful neon sculptures which have adorned the facades of historic sites including Tate Britain, Liverpool Town Hall, the Holburne Museum in Bath, Covent Garden's piazza and Brighton Pvilion, as well as being exhibited internationally.

Working with neon has given Burman the opportunity to translate many of the motifs that appear in her prints and drawings into sculptural forms which are infused with energy and retain her bold use of vivid colour. Through careful observation, Burman translates Hindu deities, mythical creatures, animals, ice lollies and ice cream vans into linear constructions that immerse the galleries and public places alike in a kaleidoscopic glow of light, colour, belief and pop culture.

As you can see, Burman has embellished the entrance to Compton Verney with a neon installation of neon sculptures of Hindu gods and goddesses.

We tend to go for a walk around the grounds before going in to see the exhibitions at Compton Verney and during our walk we discovered more neon installations

We then moved in to the galleries and what a delight that was

Snake, 2023, (neon sculpture)

Manga Girl, 2023, (neon sculpture)

Mermaid, 2020, (neon sculpture)

Dancing Girl with Catherine Wheel, 2020, (neon sculpture)

Rainbow Heart, 2021, (neon sculpture)

Hand, 2023

Home Grown Bull, 2022

Playing the Feather Flute, 2020

Dead Souls, 2024

Dragon, 2022

Ice Cream Lips, 2024

Punjabi Rocker, 2022

Tuk Tuk, 2022, (tuk tuk with wallpaper embelished with stickers and faux gems)

Burman's vivid pink tutuk has been decorated with an array of badges, stickers and glittering embellishments and a specially designed collage. The tuk tuk has been adapted to serve as a vehicle for Burman's film works, which immerse the viewer in her Punjabi Liverpudlian world.

Four days after seeing this exhibition we went to Bath for a few days, and what a coincidence it was to find that the Holburne museum also had an exhibition by Burman, albeit a very small one.

The Glowing Canopies (2023) 

This neon installation celebrates the power and beauty of our natural environment. Illuminated neon trees, bees and insects transform the museum's front facade in the artist's largest individual neon sculpture to date. The work highlights the symbol of the tree as a source of life, growth and connectivity, sustained by intricate relationships with other creatures in our ecosystem.

Inside, in one of the galleries, 

My Tiger Janu, (2022)

The sculpture rerferences Burman's ice cream business that was owned by Burman's father in 1960s Liberpool. Her father's ice cream van was crowned with a magnhificent Bengal tiger, an iconic symbol for the family business. Many in the Indian community at that time ran ice cream businesses. For the artist, the tiger symbolises both childhood nostalgia and the resilience and strength of Indian working class communities after migrating from India to Britain.

You can see a similar tiger in my previous post on Burman, but that one is a collage where the tiger is outlined in electric blue.