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The exhibition was held in a well lit, spacious, open plan set of rooms within the museum. It was sensitively hung with each artist's work grouped so that their names and development could be appreciated. However, I did feel that the two display cabinets obtruded. Both their form and contents seemed out of tune with the rest of the exhibition. Many of us need to sell craft items to subsidise our work but it is a pity when they detract from an otherwise excellent exhibition.
A good standard of consistent or complementary framing had been achieved with close fitting, box and more spacious mounting used appropriately. Not all the work was framed. Brenda Miller's Routine, a long thin stitched paper hanging incorporating text, was well sited down the edge of a door frame, coiling onto the floor. This piece gives value to domestic, office and life chores and, for me, constructively blurred the boundaries between life and art. Daphne Gale's flag forms entitled Communications were strung effectively across the window and could be seen as symbolic of the whole exhibition. A tripartite hanging Cornwall Coast by Maggie Jones hung well in the space between the windows.
I found the work exciting with much that delighted and some that was very thought provoking. In most pieces, the image, the feel or the idea was paramount; the techniques servants rather than masters. There seemed to be two main styles, one painterly and expressive, the other more analytical, concerned with process, formal structure and texture, with some artists combining both.
Liz Harding's expressive abstract images are inspired by quotations from 'Tales of Ovid' which were helpfully displayed beside her panels. Her masterly use of colour, form and mark produces beautifully mysterious images suggesting chaos and flux at the beginning of time and the rough stitching adds the feeling of new forms and structure just beginning to evolve. Could this reflect the state of contemporary embroidery?
Having moved on from her stitched and slashed textiles, Daphne Gale has painted body lines and accentuated them with machine and hand stitchery which expresses her sense of self. I would have liked her four long pieces to have been closer together to emphasise their relationship. They are very narrow, making the body forms appear tightly constrained. This is interesting work and I can't wait to see where it will lead.
Louise Watson's symbolic still lives are printed, painted and stitched on calico. Moon Apples has wonderfully rich colour and a strong composition. Inspired by a recent trip to India, Alison Harper has delicately portrayed the colours and fragility of life there in her series of grid based collages.
Titles are important in Brenda Miller's work, such as in Lines, Rows, Furrows, Remembered Harvest, Remembered Field, indicating that she is conveying the bare essence of an experience. Her work, in delicate natural colours, is formally structured, calm, restrained and reflective with her repetitive stitchery used to add marks or texture which makes it more accessible. Her creative process appears to flow seamlessly from her impression into her finished work.
Renaissance clothing, craftsmanship, sails and knotting are the source of Jan Connett's two Suits and Sails panels. With bold shapes, coarse hand stitching and faggotting, she has achieved a perfect balance of shape, line, texture and tone, her design skill and techniques matching those on which she is commenting. Caroline Sibbald's Pathway series continues her interest in Ancient Egypt with mummy wrapping structures. She has repeated her ideas in different colour schemes. I particularly liked the warm tones of Pathway to Nefetaria.
The Brunel Broderers are setting high exhibition standards for other groups to follow. However, they need to value their work more. Much of the best was considerably underpriced. That this work should be seen by as wide an audience as possible and that they should continue to stretch the boundaries is far more important than sales prospects. I left the exhibition with a feeling of exhilaration and look forward eagerly to their next one.
Margaret Charlton
highlights from September 1998 issue