Japanese Sashiko Textiles
A very beautiful exhibition at York Art Gallery. A way of decoratively stitching clothes, to preserve the cloth and mend clothing. A form of fine workmanship and craft carried out by Japanese women out of pure necessity. Some of the clothes had been in use for 30 years, and were layered and repaired. Very Wabi Sabi, very beauitful. I am not usually into fibre work, but this show really moved me. I guess mostly because the women who made the garments were still evident, through the work and also in the supporting exhibition information and films.
Also popped into see the York Quilt Museum on the same day, kind of by accident, but very pleased to have found it too ! A day of womens work in the best possible sense, from a time when cloth was precious, used and cared for until it was worn out.
The ‘C’ Word
This is just brilliant. Watch the video on the Craft Scotland site to find out more !
Heartfelt congratulations to Emma Walker of Craft Scotland, for her vision her understanding and fearless action.
York & North Yorkshire Culture
Gave a presentation today to a great many suits about who we are and what we do.
Brilliant day in Scarborough and the surf was up. The sea was littered with men with boards and wet suits !
Enjoyed the day, I hope it makes some connections for the policy makers and movers about the many benefits of creative work in all respects socially , culturally and economically and how a well grounded appreciation and support for this work directly benefits the local community.
Photo Credit – Chris Read / christophe.read@gmail.com
CGS conference 2009
Was on Saturday & Sunday 26/27 Sept at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
It was a cracking good party, great food and with a pretty good conference attached. I enjoyed the speakers I heard, even though it was all flat glass. Good to know what is going on in other forms of glass.
The conference was at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which is always a great setting and was sold out, which bodes well for the CGS. Follow the link to se what the Society is all about. It is open to makers and collectors and all that have an interest in creative contemporary glass.
Craft and Essential Luxury ?
This was the title of the debate of 25th Sept 09. Run by Arts & Business , Walpole and sponsored by American Express it was at the Sackler Centre at the V&A.
A good panel. I left the room having not said enough, but probably too much as is my way. I look forward to the next developments and the Crafted initiative being run by Arts & Business. Follow the links in green if you are curious.
The language ‘Crafts’ have used to describe itself and practice for such a long time is now suddenly of relevance ( slow, provenance, rarity, connoisseurship ) . It will be interesting to see if Arts & Business does manage to link these ideas with the essence of contemporary Craft and introduce what we all do to a much larger and curious audience.
Northlands Creative Glass
This is an image taken at Whaligoe steps. Just the colours as the lense saw them. Very appropriate as I had just been on my annual pilgrimage to the conference at Lybster. This year the conference theme was colour and transparency. As usual there were good speakers, good conversation, an eclectic diverse and interesting group of people, brought together by an interest in the material that is glass. Northlands is a long way, but everytime I make the effort I return, rejuvenated, having learned a great deal about a great many things, including myself… and with a real sense of a community.
New Work / Ryedale Folk Museum
The exhibition at the Contemporary Gallery at Ryedale Folk Museum looms large. The show opens on 8th August and runs through to 11th October .
‘Vessel, bounded space’… its still a working title
The show will have a catalogue which will be presented at the end of the exhibition.
Will blog more later, but we are making new work and developing the forms and content of our work. A thank you to the Arts Council for the funding which enables us to take the time to do so and Andrew Dalton for the invitation to show.
The jist of show is we use the blown glass vessel, as metaphorical containers for our thoughts, our interests, and as a way to reveal the possibilities of our shared world.
Also, really like the context. Here we are makers on a post industrial island, showing work within a museum, where 85% of the objects were made by people. Objects that were made to last, time taken, thought given, materials conserved and considered… by necessity. Hmmmm.
Financial Times/ Glass is making the breakthrough
Nice piece by Antony Thorncroft in this weeks Collecting section of the Saturday FT.
‘Glass is making the breakthrough’
Saturday June 6 2009
It mentions Dan Klein’s tireless work to support and represent glass, the recent Bonhams auction and a general overview of glass as a collectable art form. A good upbeat optomistic piece especialy from the presepective of a maker.
Collect 2009
Stephen and I visited the show on Friday. Beautiful space, good lighting and a good selection of work.
Some excellent glass on show with Vessel and the Australian galleries.
The Saatchi gallery is a wonderful space and I hope the Crafts Council continue Collect in this venue. Collect is an important event for artist makers and we look forward to the future.
It was a pleasure to have the space to enjoy viewing the full range of work in ehibition. The feeling in the halls was the event was attracting a new audience to see the work and that just has to be good for all of us.
Contemporary Applied Arts / New Work
Five new pieces on exhibition. Five with a similar colour theme but each an individual.
Vessels
…came across a lecture by Jeremy Rifkin … he talked about us as the last of the oil people, before us it was the coal people, and before it was the grain people, each development in our civilization has been driven by a specific fuel… but… civilization as we know it now was started when a container, a vessel was created as a means to preserve, transport and trade the fuel ( grain ), so I would argue for the significance of the vessel, as still much more than ‘just’ a container.
Vessels are ubiquitous as Mark L Johnson says..” We automatically learn the meaning and logic of containment, since hundreds of times daily we interact with various types of containers – cups, boxes , clothes , rooms , our bodies etc. as bounded spaces .”
Hmmm… “bounded spaces” We are bounding spaces by continuing to make vessels. It begs a whole other set of questions.
