DESIGNER MAKER ARTIST - Timorous Beasties

'TIMOROUS BEASTIES WAS ESTABLISHED IN GLASGOW IN 1990 BY ALISTAIR MCAULEY AND PAUL SIMMONS, WHO MET STUDYING TEXTILE DESIGN AT GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART. TODAY, THE STUDIO IS A DIVERSE OPERATION AND HAS EMERGED AS A MULTI-AWARD-WINNING, INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED ICON' 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/92816442294833895/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/427208714626885874/

http://www.timorousbeasties.com/about

Timorous Beasties is one of the very few companies who still use silk screen printing. I found this very interesting as it is the printing method that I have been taught throughout college and I feel I am skilled at. Using silk screens limits you to colours as each colour means a different silk screen, However the layered up look which makes it look more colourful and busy is what I like to do with my work and I seem to have been influenced by Timorous Beasties. 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/544372673679962189/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/373306256584485698/

The pictures I have included in this blog post are just a few of my favourite designs from Timorous Beasties. The use of bright colours and textured like patterns and techniques such as watercolour and bleach. The bottom photo also shows the use of positive and negative space. Timorous Beasties is a inspiring company which influences a lot of creatives.

Website: http://www.timorousbeasties.com

DESIGNER MAKER ARTIST | Movana Chen

Movana Chen is a designer - Maker who uses paper and knitting to create fashion based installations. 

I found this artist when researching the materials and techniques which was picked out from my designer maker workshop task when I had to go into Huddersfield to ask certain strangers to help me with my work. 

http://www.movanachen.com/pj_13_1.htm

http://www.movanachen.com/pj_13_1.htm

http://www.movanachen.com/pj_13_1.htm

Movana Chen creates her work by using shredded paper which she glues the ends together to create a continuous ribbon, She then knits it together. 

I really like Movana Chens way of working. Although it is time consuming, It is sustainable and I think recycling and constructing art and fashion out of everyday things which just gets wasted is a really amazing talent. 

Movana Chen Website: http://www.movanachen.com/pj_13_1.htm

Debbie Smyth - Textile Artist

 Debbie Smyth's work reminds me of when I did the string art workshop, You can see the blog post by clicking here!

Her work is very large scale, However it looks like it has been created on a piece of fabric using free machining. I really like it. The contrast of the black and white really makes you look at the work instead of anything else. To work so large scale is time consuming and can sometimes go very wrong, However this textile artist has completely got it right. Even the perspective in her work is completely on point. 

You can read the article on Debbie Smyth by clicking here.

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Sarah Davidson - Textiles and Illustration

www.textileartist.org article

When looking for embroidery artists that relate to my work I came upon Sarah Davidson's work through an interview with textile artist.org - Although straight away this work doesn't look anything like my work. I used the same techniques that sarah uses. Photography and embroidery. Only different is that I photoshopped my photography into a print. I really like the layering that sarah has to her work! I would like to sample something like this in a future project, I really like finding new artists and new ideas! 

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Artist - Susie MacMurray

www.susie-macmurray.co.uk

Susie MacMurray creates really interesting work using different materials.

2010, Kedleston Hall, Promenade

In 2010 Susie created this stunning piece of art in the amazing Kedleston Hall. This specific room of Kedleston Hall used to be a room to look at, It did not have a purpose but was their to be looked at and for women to show off their gowns. Using 105 miles of gold embroidery thread wrapped around the pillars she created an temporary installation piece to be shown off, To be looked at and to be seen. 

The mode of making had to be taken in to consideration for this piece of art as she had to make sure her work did not ruin or chip the pillars which they were wrapped around - This is why she used embroidery thread as it would not harm anything. She also used gold thread as it represented the wealth I would say this is the mode of making, As well she also took in to consideration the light that would flow in through the windows and shine on the art creating a really nice effect, Which represents the need to be seen and looked at. Almost like a spot light.

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*This post is part of an ongoing collection for my artists/designers glossary for university.

Artist - Atsuko Yamamoto

Atsuko Yamamoto | 62 group

''"Atsuko graduated from University of London, Goldsmiths College, postgraduate course of textile and embroidery in 1980. Known as a contemporary artist in home and foreign based on the embroidery of her background. Space for Meditation, a series of works for her own exhibition, was the starting point from a gallery to the TV and the stage art. She aims to create work of contemporary art which can be classics."-http://www.62group.org.uk/artist/atsuko-yamamoto/

As Atsuko is now commissioned to do art pieces/work for the theatre and dance, That says to me that their is a real mode of meaning behind it, As every dance or musical or performance has passion and meaning behind it, Just like the art which is used for it has. I also think the mode of making is really important as it has to be used in practice in theatre or dance therefore the making process has to be well thought of.

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*This post is part of my ongoing collection of artists for a glossary for university

Artist - Lucy Brown

Lucy Brown | 62 Group

Lucy Brown is a contemporary artist who uses second hand/vintage clothing, underwear etc.. Which she gets from second hand shops/markets or ebay! 

"“Brown uses the discarded clothing of the old - vintage undergarments, slips and petticoats, intimate materials in colours called 'rose' or 'mint' or even 'flesh' - to form the raw material of her tense, suspended, offerings. She's self- confessedly interested in the edges, the boundaries of the weave and of the clothing. Labels and stitched seams get reconfigured in her works and demonstrate the body selvedge's and sewn places where skin dustings lodge that are so evocative in Brown's work.”* “Brown offers a puzzling, even abject, artistic vision...... This is particularly so as her work has moved slowly further from the representation of bodies towards more abstract spatial forms in which the body is nevertheless echoed.”* *Extracts from Thread Bare exhibition essay by Dr Catherine Harper MA, FHEA, FRSA. Jan 2010 Sourcing, collecting and making are core motivations in the work. Raw materials are gathered from second hand clothes shops, markets and eBay. These items are selected and deconstructed through methods of cutting, unpicking and ripping. Free-hand weaving techniques are developed through physical, sensory, emotional and psychological engagement with selected clothing - the speculative play around the visible and invisible history and the internal and external surfaces all contribute to these responses. There is a seductive and obsessive drive with the raw materials, which fuels the desire to make and physically interact with the garments. Weaving is both language and method to reconstruct/ re-invent these raw materials exploring ideas around re-telling/ re-working histories, re-claiming / re-configuring female body image. Weaving by tradition is slow and labour intensive and time becomes part of the process. The woven offerings develop over two stages; first stage - loom state, will normally takes place in the privacy of the studio space. The second- limbo state, is when works are cut loose from the loom and are extended and realised in the gallery. At this point there are themes around the unfinished and unresolved, meaning that works are in a constant state of 'becoming'. Site specific works of 2012 have opened up opportunities to make a short film, introduce human hair as a raw material and use lace net curtains as a translucent boundary. Brown has been exhibiting since 1996 and has contributed to a range of art projects and education programmes for arts organisations, schools, colleges and universities. She is currently an exhibiting and committee member of The 62 Group of Textiles Artists. Her work has been featured in Dr Jessica Hemmings' latest book - 'Warp & Weft' (2012) and Unravelled Arts 'Unravelling Nymans' publication (2012). Independent Curator Kate Stoddart has recently reviewed Browns' 'Offerings' on a-n Interface http://www.a-n.co.uk/interface/reviews/single/2540206" - (http://www.axisweb.org/p/lucybrown/)

I think Lucy Brown really considers modes of meaning for her work. Using second hand and vintage clothing in her work gives her art a history and makes you think where did that item of clothing come from? What is it's story? She creates her art in two parts, Firstly a long, slow and labouring process of the loom then the second part where it is cut from the loom and realised into the gallery.
'Free-hand weaving techniques are developed through physical, sensory, emotional and psychological engagement with selected clothing - the speculative play around the visible and invisible history and the internal and external surfaces all contribute to these responses. '

The mode of making is really important in this procedure too, She put's a lot of effort into making her art. From picking apart the vintage/second hand clothing, to weaving and to putting it up in the gallery!

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*This blog post is part of my on going artists/designer glossary for university.

Lise Bjørne Lennert - Desconocida Unknown Ukjent | Workshop

'A global mass collaboration, protesting continuing murders of women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. 6200 hand embroidered nametags (by January 2013). Each 2 x 8 cm, stitched by 4500 individuals in 375 globally arranged workshops.

Desconocida Unknown Ukjent is an international art project utilizing a mass collaboration, stitching nametags to protest the continuing murder of women in Ciudad Juaréz, Mexico and in remembrance of similar crimes worldwide.

Ciudad Juaréz:

Since 1993, more than 1500 women have been brutally murdered, and hundreds disappeared in Ciudad Juaréz. Explanations for the murders range from the use of women as prizes for drug cartels, domestic violence, and so-called sexual violence tourism. Many of the victims worked in the numerous sweat shops in Juaréz and the name tags inside their dust coats were often used to identify the decomposed bodies. The Mexican Government has done nothing that has improved the situation, solved cases or prevented new from happening.

I heard about the situation in Ciudad Juaréz for the first time in 2000 when I was living in Houston, Texas. At the end of 2005, the Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston, a museum that is dedicated to a political and social agenda, invited me to create a work dedicated to the women in Juarez, for the exhibition, Frontera 450.

At the time, I was again living in Norway and my immediate thought was to use the physical distance as a starting point for my contribution. I wanted to find a way to spread awareness about the horror happening in Ciudad Juaréz, and simultaneously enable a feeling of connection. In essence, abuse and murder of women are about us. It is something that has happened and continues to happen in every global society.' (http://www.lisebjorne.com/art_projects/desconocida-unknown-ukjent/)

Today I took part in a workshop, To contribute to Lise Bjørne Lennerts Unknown project. I watched a small clip of the video for this project and it was so upsetting! I can't believe the government is not doing anything about all these women going missing and being murdered, It is like it is the norm. Which is not ok! I contributed to this project by picking out a name of a women that has been a victim to sew onto a little strip of fabric. I also did the same thing again but with the word 'unknown' for all the body's that have been found with no name. The exhibitions that happen all over the world are these little strips of paper with names on or 'unknown' on just pinned to a wall, There are so so so many of them! She often go's to each of her exhibitions to stand on the stage and scream in pain so show people how much it hurt's! 

We gathered around as a class and started to sew into our little strips of fabric, doing this together sparked conversation of the project as well as other things. It is really quite clever how the project has been developed, It is quite a slow process to sew, Giving you time to think about what you are doing and why you are doing it.

I feel really happy to be involve in this socially engaged project, I think using craft to change something is really amazing! 

Go check out Lise's website: Click Here!

Spread the word of this amazing project and lets make some changes!

Leigh Bowser - Blood Bag Project

Leigh Bowser is an illustrative embroider, specializing in portrait, Using free hand machine techniques. Leigh graduated Huddersfield University with 1^st class hons in textile craft. She creates wearable and affordable hand embroided unique works of art. The blood bag project is a project that Leigh Bowser has created for her niece chloe. Chloe has a rare blood condition called diamond blackfan anaemia. The project is to create awareness of this rare condition, By welcoming people to create their own textile blood bag to be apart of the exhibition/project. There are over 300 blood bags that have been made! I think this project is really amazing, Not only is it art, It is raising awareness of this rare condition and promoting the use of textile art for a good cause. Each blood bag made has a tag on with the name of the person that made it, where they are from and their age.  Each blood bag is as creative as the last, Using techniques such as stiching, hand embroidery, applique, etc… each bag is made with love. Although The Blood Bag project is Leigh Bowser project, The art is a collection of artists/students coming together to support the project, Making the project a community. Whilst researching into Leigh Bowser I saw that her Blood Bag project is on exhibition at the Lawrence Batley Theater in Huddersfield, Although I was not able to see the exhibition I was impressed with all the photography online of the bag’s. I was also impressed with the website for Leigh Bowser, The website for the Blood Bag project and all the links to her portfolio, etsy page, facebook etc…  In conclusion, I am really pleased that someones love for textile art has been driven into creating a community project for such a good cause so close to home.  

Links

The Blood Bag Project Website - Click Here

The Blood Bag Project Blog - Click Here

The Blood Bag Project Facebook Page - Click Here

Leigh Bowser's Blog - Click Here

Leigh Bowser's Website - Click Here

Leigh Bowsers Portfolio - Click Here

Leigh Bowsers Facebook - Click Here

Leigh Bowsers Etsy Shop - Click Here

Please share this blog post to raise awareness of The Blood Bag Project and support the amazing work of Leigh Bowser!