Riot

Riot, work in progress. Shepton Snowdrops Festival Eco Fashion Show. Photo by Jason Bryant

I had a chance to try out Riot as a wearable artwork in the local Shepton Snowdrops Festival eco fashion show. Thanks to Angela Morley for organising the show. Loved being part of the community event alongside fellow makers and models.

A work in progress for One Island - Many Visions, Riot is inspired by Lichen (Xanthoria) found on rocks at Tout Quarry, ancient life forms in symbiosis. Created from hand-stitched and woven recycled/waste materials including botanically dyed textiles, wire & beach litter.  There will be a transient Happening, a performance in which the human body activates the work.

Last Sunday I revisited Tout quarry, Portland with Seamus Moran and photographer Russell Sach to get a few pics of Riot, as I trialed it in my chosen location. The work will be shown in One Island - Many Visions, an exhibition by Royal Society of Sculptors which will open in September. Thanks to Hannah Sofaer for taking the time out on a Sunday to open the gates and let us drive right up to the location, and to Russell for the photoshoot.

Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand, Seed Creative Pop Up, Bridgwater. Photos by Elliott Morgan

A few evocative detail shots (above) of my installation Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand at Seed Sedgemoor’s popup in Angel Place, Bridgwater last month. I’m hugely grateful to Seed for the commission and their support, and to all those who visited and took part in my drop-in workshops all week. It was such a joy engaging visitors and chatting about the work. Many different responses from happy enchanted faces, to tears of sadness about the plight of pangolins.

Coming soon: Flags of the Forest, an installation from April 8-13th, at Seed Creative Popup (Shop 8), Angel Place Shopping Centre, Bridgwater TA6 3TQ. The work explores the beauty and resilience of nature. Reclaimed and botanically-dyed fabrics are combined with wood, metal, and other found materials. This multi-layered artwork was originally created at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Cornwall. These eco-flags celebrate the biodiversity of woodlands and the hope for a thriving natural world. Visitors can walk among the soft hangings and hard lines, experiencing the interplay of art, sustainability, and sound through a soundscape by Ushara Dilrukshan, adding another layer to this immersive sculptural installation.

I will be running a free drop-in workshop on Saturday 12th April, 11am-2pm at the Seed Popup. The workshop will entail weaving, wrapping and hand-stitching using a combination of recycled textiles and found plant debris to make mini soft hangings. Free, fun, and open to all (children accompanied by an adult). No need to book - just drop in!

I have 2 drawings on show in Drawing on Dorset, The Sherborne, Drawing Room, Dorset, DT9 3JG until 23 March, and 3 pieces in The Piano Shop Bath, 1&2 Canton Place BA1 6AA, all for sale.

New Work in Progress

Stilt Structure II (work in progress), found, recycled & waste materials: wood branches, coir, copper wire, handmade naturally dyed & recycled fabric, leather, plastic netting, polyester stuffing, jute, sisal, wool, thread, nylon tights

I’ve been creating hybrid forms around the notion of resilience, adaptation, making do. These precarious, awkward sculptural assemblages incorporate hand-stitched and woven textiles, which carry histories of land, past lives, labour, craft, trade routes, consumerism and waste. Labour-intensive processes relate to care and repair.

Grateful to Roger Spear for the use of his wood workshop and technical assistance.

As Old as the Hills

I’m co-curating a project As Old as the Hills, rooted in heritage and environment, highlighting issues of sustainability. It culminates in a contemporary art exhibition plus events for SAW Festival in the Bauhaus building, Glastonbury. 10 artists will create site-responsive work, some with the community, developing collaborative art: installation, sculpture, textiles, film, photography, performance. Our artworks will respond to place, deep time, climate change: floods, water pollution, and precarity of the peat bogs. The project will be approached as a collective conversation. We want to celebrate biodiversity in the levels & marshes, re-framing the notion ‘as old as the hills’ as forward-thinking rather than anti-progressive.

Upcoming Drop-in Workshop at Collett Park Day, Shepton Mallet, 8 June, with me & Jan Ollis making simple paper casts and embedding river & sea debris. All day; all welcome! Work made will be part of the final As Old as the Hills exhibition.

Awaiting news on our ACE project grant application; work + events will be scaled according to funds. Visit @as.old.as.the.hills for more about the project and my Artist Instagram Takeover this week.

Played and Remade (launched this week)

Thrilled to be part of a new collaborative art & music project with The Piano Shop Bath. Discarded piano parts have been upcycled and transformed into artworks. My 3 pieces Nest, String Theory, & Starfish are for sale. All artworks are available to view online and in The Piano Shop Bath, 1&2 Canton Place BA1 6AA. See article in The Guardian and visit @playedandremade for more info.

Nest, for Played and Remade

Elysia

In April I collaborated with dance artist Vanessa Grasse on her Elysia R&D project in a residency at Create@#8, Shepton Mallet for a week. We collected materials on walks, hand dyed natural recycled fabric remnants with homemade botanical inks, and made eco sculptural wearable artworks. The work relates to hybridity, interconnection between the human and non-human world. The name’s inspired by Elysia chlorotica, a sea slug with plant-like qualities - living testament to hybridity and symbiosis.

It was fascinating creating sculptural textiles to move with the body, and see elements in action.  We shared work in progress on our last day, encouraged people to make a small part, and were treated to a performance - those watching were transfixed. See more in my previous blog.

Elysia, work in progress

Upcoming

Solastalgia Exhibition, Truro Cathedral, Cornwall, 1-14 July. This follows an excellent publication about Environmental art, edited by Summer Auty.  I’ll be showing Glut and Pyre.

Site visits for future projects

Tout Quarry, Portland; Avalon Marshes; Bridies Mount; Mendip Hills

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