photos from the Private View evening

Merete, Sandy and Jane

a look around

A special thanks to Eleanor - the curator. (in the red dress)

photos by Merete Hawkins

Private View

The Private View of the Ideas Bank Exhibit on Thursday evening went well. Not as many people as we thought might be there, but it was held at a difficult time of evening for people moving round Berkshire in the traffic.

Here is a photo of Jane discussing her piece.

We also had the privilege of hearing about the work of 2 of the other artists.
Vrinder Atwal and Mo Negm. In the centre of the room there were fabric and felt books with work by Annie Hamilton who has links with Lebanon. It would have been interesting to talk with her because of the textile connections, but she is visiting Lebanon at the moment. Shehnoor Ahmed also has work in the exhibition.

Some of Mo Negm's work

Vrinder Atwal's work

Shehnoor Ahmed's work

Annie Hamilton's work

The Ideas Bank 2010 exhibit continues at the Slough Museum in Berkshire throughout February. If you are in the area, do stop by. The museum is open between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm Wed - Sat.

Communication

I am often drawn to words. Coming from another English speaking country, I am fascinated by the differences in the words; how they are spelled, what they mean and so on. Words are formed of letters and then they themselves are formed together to create languages. I decided to focus on this aspect for my Zoom series beginning in the middle with Words, zooming out to Languages and then back in again to Letter.

A1 - Letter

A3 - Language

A5 - Words

Each piece has a definition included as part of the texture and visual image of the work.

"A Letter is an element in an alphabetic system."

"Language is a dynamic set of sensory symbols of communication and the elements used to manipulate them."

"A Word is a spoken or written unit of language that carries meaning."

 

I often use unusual materials to create the look I want to achieve. In this series, there are recycled materials, rusted fabrics, paper, paint, gel pen, along with cotton, silk and metallic fabrics.

 

Sandy

Hanging the exhibition

Today Jane and I went along to the Slough Museum. Eleanor Pulfer, the Curator, chatted with us about few things like placement, got us a cup of tea, and then let us get to work, allowing us to hang the exhibit as we felt presented the work best. We are really grateful for the opportunity she has given us.

 The work looks really good together. It is quite something to see your work in a gallery setting. When it is just at home when you are working on it, or even when you pull it out to show friends, you don't seem to be able to see it as a whole. Hanging in the gallery gives it quite a special "authentic" feel!

Here is a glimpse of the Zoom pieces in place.
Jane Glennie's work Significant is on the left, then Sandy Snowden's work Communication, then Merete Hawkins work Sunflowers.
 
If you would like to view our work and that of several other local artists, the exhibit opens on 3 Feb. 2010. The Museum is open from 11am - 4pm Wed - Sat. Click here for a map to find out how to get there. You can also find out about Ideas Bank 2009.

Zoom: Sunflowers

I have been sewing all my life and I have always enjoyed fabric. I marvel at the feel of a piece of cloth, the colours and patterns and how it drapes and shapes.

I enjoy making my own fabrics, combining different techniques such as dyeing, printing, stencilling, painting - whatever it takes to get the look and feel that I am after. I usually work with strong and warm colours as they remind me of the warmth of spring and summer.

A1

A3

A5

The inspiration for these three pieces was a bunch of sunflowers received from a friend. I wanted to capture the feel of a field of sunflowers as well as having a close-up look at the detail of this cheerful flower.

It is inspiring to work with other textile artists. Zoom, our first group challenge shows how we work in very different ways yet learn and inspire each other.

Merete
These pieces have been chosen to hang as part of the EquilARTeral exhibition at Slough Museum from the 3rd of February, 2010 for one month.

Recent Challenges

So far, we have had 3 challenges in the EquilARTeral group.

The first challenge was Zoom. The idea was to work with our own choice of subject but in large, medium and small sizes, ‘zooming-in’ or ‘zooming-out’. Some chose literal subject matter and some chose to depict conceptual ideas. We opted to use A1, A3, and A5 for the sizes of the pieces.

The second challenge was Connect-Disconnect. Again, the responses were sometimes literal and sometimes conceptual. We had enjoyed the series of different sizes so well for Zoom, that we decided to do a similar thing with A2, A4, and A6.

Our current project is based on the recent find of the Staffordshire Hoard. A treasure trove of items from Anglo-Saxon times discovered by a metal detectorist. Here is a video showing some of the items as they were discovered.

Staffordshire hoard excavation from Dan Pett on Vimeo.

We are nearly at the point where we will have photos of our responses to the Staffordshire Hoard find. What we have done differently this time, is to create work which we have encorporated into painted, textured artist canvas. This has been a step beyond our normal way of working, and all of us are enjoying the journey.

The posts to follow this will show work from the various challenges the group has done.

Exhibition – Slough Museum

EquilARTeral group have been invited to exhibit at Ideas Bank, a visual arts exhibition organised by Slough Museum. The group have been hoping to show together at some point, and we have suddenly been given the opportunity. Sandy Snowden, Merete Hawkins and I are planning to hang our 'Zoom' series of pieces on Tuesday. The exhibition opens on Wednesday and will be up for the whole of February.