Current issue | Letters Online | What's on | Webwatch | About us | Previous issues | Contact us | Subscribe/renew | Index | Terms & conditions | Your basket
Deirdre Nelson's textile practice has evolved through experimenting with materials and methods of making in which handwork and craftsmanship provide both direction and context. Since graduating from Glasgow School of Art in 1992 with an MPhil in Art & Design in an Organisational Context, Deirdre has pursued a parallel career in exhibiting textile work and as a tutor. She currently teaches at the Visual Art Studio at The Tramway, Glasgow.
Deirdre's work is steeped in Scottish history and humour and she clearly believes that amusing the observer is a useful way to broach topics which might be off-putting dealt with in an earnest or sanctimonious way. Her lighthearted treatment offers the audience a chance to discover for themselves the depths in the work. She is fond of wordplay - in fact her use of language, particularly slang, is an essential element in her work and much of the humour resides in her titles. 'A Wee Nip', 'My Dear John' and 'Lush Betty' to name a few. The latter may make you smile but actually refers to the rather desperate practice of some 19th Ayrshire flowerers to counter eyestrain, '… the older workers would bathe their eyes in whiskey not withstanding the sharpness of the pain because of the relief afforded and the temporary quickening of the sight.' The pieces inspired by this gem of social history approached the problem of where these hardworking women may have stashed their whiskey supply, using traditional techniques on both historical and contemporary garments.
Although the artist seems preoccupied with the past (a typical list of her interests might be 'museum artefacts and archives, historical textiles, social history and craft') these things have greatest resonance for her when juxtaposed in incongruous combinations with contemporary life, whether that is micro-photography and antique thimbles or digital print technology and painstaking needlework.
Following 'Lush Betty' Deirdre embarked on a period of research at the Ford Rankin archive at the Museum of Edinburgh. This important archive relates to one of the most prominent Edinburgh glass manufacturers of the 19th century and contains rare pattern books, legal documents and family letters. The letters, dating from the late 1840s and 1850s written between Pauline Ford and her eldest son John, prompted Deirdre to produce works that played with ideas of communication between mother and son, fusing the historical and the contemporary and making reference to communication in the world of e-mail and mobile phones. In considering the apparent need for portable communication technology at all times, the work also makes reference to current developments in wearable technology, taking a playful look at decorative costume.
|
Traditional
embroideries by Deirdre Nelson, typical of the
18th century. These were photographed using
a macro lens and digitally altered before being
printed. |
||||||
What links each successive project in Deirdre Nelson's body of work is her ability to take a wry look at the past and present culture of Scotland and use elements of each to illuminate the other. Her latest commission takes a historical figure as its inspiration, Mary Eleanor Bowes, the sad countess. Though she is famous for her turbulent love life this project is designed to tell an alternative story and focuses on her love of botany and literature. In retelling the life of the countess, Deirdre is not overly concerned with historical accuracy. Instead, she crafts a tale that has its roots in the documented past but grows into the present imaginatively. The techniques employed in producing the work reflect this journey through time. The final installation is large-scale digitally printed banners hung in the arches of the ruined orangery at Gibside, home of the countess. But first the artist produced traditional embroideries typical of the 18th century. These were photographed using a macro lens and digitally altered before being printed.
Atrophic
Cache. 2003
Digital prints on cotton (7 banners).
Hand embroidery, photography, digital manipulation
and digital printing. 140 x 280 cm
Gibside is a National Trust property 6 miles south
west of Gateshead.
click the image to see a bigger
version
As an artist Deirdre Nelson has an almost amphibious quality, able to move with ease between past and present. She is equally at home in each and capable of manipulating the techniques of either to her own creative ends.
This article is from Embroidery, Volume 54 No.6, © Elizabeth Smith
