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Catalogue fully illustrated in colour, £5
The colour red, either saturating the whole work or used as a small flash, has given this exhibition energy without constraining the artists' current themes. It started its tour in the elegant Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, curated by Barbara Taylor and hung coherently. The Gallery has established itself as a leading venue for textile and craft shows and is an ideal location for the first of a programme of exhibitions by the group, showing elsewhere during the year.
The number of exhibits has been deliberately restricted, with most members showing only one piece. Without the back-up of supporting work to reinforce its theme, each piece has to stand on its own. The works have an inner strength which comes from engaging with ideas and pushing the boundaries of technique, and they invite careful scrutiny by the viewer.
Colette Dobson : Folding According to Instruction.
Four
pieces folded into 20 cm squares.
Starched cream and brown linen and cotton. Appliqué
and stitch.
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version
Four works by Colette Dobson come into this category. In 'Folding According to Instruction', she uses small red tags and crosses as location marks on precisely made forms, referencing fine sewing on linen napkins and practice bags made by children and nuns learning their skills. Fabric is starched and continuously pressed during its construction, laundered and corrected, leaving the marks of making embedded in the cloth. The final pieces are presented with a sense of care and control, showing the journey of 'learning to make right'.
Jeanette Appleton : Nomad - Red Line of Danger. 2000.
Merino
wool, thread, printing ink, wood and glass.
Felt, stitch and transfer printing. 50 x 103 x 4 cm.
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In 'Nomad - Red Line of Danger', a long red thread symbolises the border. Jeanette Appleton makes a strong personal and political statement, crossing borders between her own felt-making skills and those of the nomads she visited in Russia and Mongolia. Using stills from a video, and transfer printing them onto felt, she combines her interest in landscape, borders and personal space in a partially framed piece which allows the centre to escape from the confines of the glass frame.
Hilary Bower explores the symbolism and sensuality of the colour which she associates with the carrying and holding of ideas and secrets, by way of five long narrow bags with a textured surface and dark interior. In 'Red: the Colour of Secrets', she uses dark earthy tones to explore the many connotations of the colour and the repetition involved before a way forward is found. In 'Red Bole' by Karen Flemming, a background of red flannel is gilded, creating a contrast between flexible fabric and burnished metal, referencing the traditional way red clay (bole) or painted wooden bases are used to give warmth to gold. The resulting fabric combines the opposites of dull pliable cloth and stiff reflective metal, the quilting reminding the viewer of embossed decoration on ancient golden artefacts and ornaments.
Karen Fleming : Red Bole.
Quilted
and gilded hanging on a backing of various red fabrics
from a dressmaker's rag bag. 112 x 110 cm.
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version
The 62 Group exhibitions have become major events in the textile calendar. From the beginning their innovative work shocked some viewers. It burst from the frame, included loose dangling threads or no stitch at all, print, paper, wood and metal, and challenged the traditional method-based idea of embroidery, inviting critical engagement by the viewer. This is a group of artists working with textiles, rather than a group of textile artists.
This review is from Embroidery, Volume 53 No.3.
PHOTOS
BY MICHAEL WICKS
Copyright The 62 Group, PO Box 24615, London
E2 7TU
www.62group.freeuk.com