jenny's journal: January 2013

Die Scheuche (The Scarecrow) by Schwitters, Van Doesburg and Kate Steinitz. 1925

My new blog.

This blog will record practice and learning around the use and placement of text and images in textiles.

Typography (from the Greek words τύπος (typos) = form and γραφή (graphe) = writing) is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible.

This modernist typography is playful, indeed it illustrates a childrens book, has not a single horizontal or vertical line. I need a translator to know exactly what it says, but it tells me a lot already.

Saturday, 12 January 2013

hand in day

Judy Chicago

Last week I went to the Ben Uri Gallery in London to see the Judy Chicago exhibition.

I am in awe at her energy and courage. She produces ambitious, large scale works. I saw some wonderful embroidery from her Birth project and I also watched a video on the Holocaust project which was heart rending. I've researched her iconic Dinner Party project which took her five years to complete. Judy Chicago is very inclusive in the way she works, she uses volunteers to do the embroidery and acknowledges their input. Now in her 70s, she is still working and communicating with her provocative artworks.

inspiring

Pablo Lehmann
Cut and layered paper which forms two upper case letters - A and E. I like the textured, aged and ragged appearance which is enhanced by the varied tones. The unkempt appearance is then contained in a printed paper 'net'. Pablo is Argentinian, he talks of 'freeing objects from their function'.

Meg Hitchcock uses different religous texts in her designs
I often think about the similarities in religions and despair at the
wars caused by religion. Meg Hitchcock mixes texts
and makes something lovely. She is brave.

Maria Ikonomopoulou embroiders onto photographs.
There is red stitches convey the unity
between separate souls. I really like these.

Yesterday I went to see the Jake and Dinos Chapman exhibition at The Gallery, Norwich University of the Arts. The first room exhibited work from their My Giant Colouring Book series of etchings. I liked the tonal qualities, the skill of the etching, the way they were framed and the way they were presented. The wittiness of the dot-to-dot and the naive drawings contrasted with the ghoulish content. They were interesting, grim, clever, not of the real world, daft.

The second room looked as if it would be fun - games, books, video. However, it challenged me on many levels - I found it hard to view representational images of children (naked except for their Nike trainers) alongside disability (conjoined bodies) and displaced adult sexual organs. There were also images of cruelty and violence.

I can't remember how those images were displayed - on the walls, video or in the books - the content was so provocative that I didn't notice. I'll try to find time to research what they were trying to say, or maybe I'll find reasons not to.

I've returned to this blog after an interval of a week when I couldn't shift these images from my mind. I don't like them and I hope nobody else 'enjoyed' them but it has made me think about how I don't want to see horrible things. I prefer to be blinkered. Is that the same as turning a blind eye and pretending that nasty stuff doesn't happen? I may not have liked what I saw at the exhibition but it certainly gave me a lot to think about.

indulging in embroidery

I have enjoyed some freestyle embroidery.

Now for the 2000 words....

ripu poster and other nightmares

Yesterday I used the digital embroiderer to add text to my screenprints. It took for ever. I am seeing the recipient of my work today. I hope she likes it.

I spent three days working on the poster, then had it printed very quickly. I should have waited because it is easier to review when a bit of time has passed. Too late to redo the poster so I will reflect here. There are two rogue capital letters which are annoying me. My chief concern is that I have included pop and psychedelic in my rationale - but for no apparent reason, then to compound the randomness, I haven't designed the poster in a pop or psychedelic fashion.

On a more positive note - it does convey colours and texture. It was a good exercise and I have learnt a lot.

Saturday, 8 December 2012

printing, printing, printing

Continuing to screenprint with iron sulphate and tannin pastes - alongside a blackberry Procion paste. Overlapping the inks and images to frame transfer prints and half tone photographs. I had pre-treated the cotton with soda ash which scorches under the heat press giving an ethereal border to the transfer prints. I need to add text but it has to be complement the aged effect of the dyes. I am cooking up some tea bags, ground coffee and cotton to see if I can achieve some subtle lettering.

I want to further investigate half tones and metal dyes for their textural and tonal qualities. Maybe that will have to wait for the next unit.

Peter Blake exhibition

Yesterday I went to see a Peter Blake exhibition in Norwich. This silkscreen print of Chuck Berry features a diamond dust guitar. Chuck Berry was such a wild musician, I think this image captures his confrontational character and musicality with its bling, direct eye contact and pose.

I am especially interested in Peter Blake's pop art. An iconic image of his (not in the exhibition unfortunately) is On the Balcony, an oil painting on canvas. The collage effect - which includes imagery from art, photographs, badges, magazines and advertising - is a theme of Peter Blake's narrative work.

print shop day

turday, 1 December 2012

Yesterday we had an induction in the Constructive Textiles studio - using digital embroidery and digital knitting machines. I can see potential for using both these techniques for Text in Textiles.

I love the provocative knitted work of Lisa Anne Auerbach.

Tacey Emin Quilt

I am going to experiment with applique this weekend.

What do you do when you know that what you are doing isn't right? Plough on until it falls into place! I think the tablecloth may have fallen into place!! Printing in the printroom yesterday - I knew that my tablecloth ideas were dull and flat but the problem wasn't the images.

This is a screenprinted half tone photograph. I like the wistful quality of the image and the darkness of the print.

I experimented with dyeing and devore - with mixed results.

But still the problem of the 'look' of the tablecloth. This morning a solution came to me. A couple of comments were made about my handstitched grids on the tablecloth. How could I incorporate those?

I could create the images as 'samples' (screenprinting, stitch, transfer prints etc) and stitch and/or pin (safety pins) those samples onto the tablecloth - giving a real album/badges/snapshot appearance and energy.

I have spend many hours puzzling over the tablecloth, this idea solves many problems. I can be quite experimental with the samples because they will be smaller, easier to work into with multiple processes, cheaper, more expendable. Finally, the recipients can pick and choose their prefered images. I am really excited and enthused.

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/pop_goes_the_easel_ken_russells_film_on_4_british_pop_artists_from_1962

Today I watched an extraordinary film called Pop Goes the Easel. It’s a black and white tv documentary by Ken Russell about 4 British Pop Artists in 1962 – Peter Blake, Peter Phillips, Pauline Boty and Derek Boshier.

It is extraordinary because Ken Russell was a flamboyant film maker and he features the artists’ lives, influences and their art.

The film was shot just before the Beatles became famous. It made me think that 1962 (I was age 12 then) was another world – and yet - it was no different – except we have colour television now.