Mira Schendel and Berwick Street

Went to see Mira Schendel exhibition at Tate Modern this weekend which I enjoyed very much.  She was interested in transparency and text from a philosophical and religious point of view.  Her work was in monochrome or organic hues.  She  used rice paper to work on because it was cheap and plentiful.  Her work included swirls (see left), squares, circles, Perspex, hole punching, oil paint, shadows and asymmetry.  
I found it most interesting that she used 'stick on' letters, which don't necessarily form a word, some of the work is just scrawled words or letters - here I am labouring over stitch and meaning and craft and layout.  I guess some of this goes back to the conversation Nick and I had about the difference between design and fine art - design needs a 'why' or a 'what'.

Generally, I found her work inspiring.  I loved the large scale installations of hanging threads and the hanging words in Perspex (which could be viewed from either side).

The picture on the right shows the rice paper (her medium) scrunched and knotted. 

A visit to Berwick Street Market for materials was not very productive but it is always good to have a look around this area which is so close to the glossy all-embracing commercialism of Oxford Street whilst retaining the appearance and air of scruffy, specialised trade.

better today

Life gets in the way sometimes.   

So, to jumpstart me into action I've booked to go to Tate Modern on Saturday to see the Mira Schendel exhibition which I know will be inspiring.  Everything I have read about it has resonated with my current studies - embroidery, visibility and text. 

I have been researching graffiti embroidery and came across embroidery artist Richard Saja.  He embroiders onto traditional toiles using bright colourful threads.  His blog is http://historically-inaccurate.blogspot.co.uk/


I particularly enjoyed his interview with Sweet Paul magazine available at http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2012/richard-saja-embroidery-artist/  His work is bright and funny and irreverent.  

I also identified with his method of working ie in front of the television.  He acknowledges that he is not 'technically accomplished' and that doesn't faze him all.  He uses a limited number of stitches (he too favours the French knot).  He also acknowledges that it is labour intensive - 'with absolutely no time savers' (music to my ears) and that it is 'meditative and rewarding'.  All refreshingly honest, but above all I like his work. 

into the unknown

 

After cross stitching onto cooking foil I remembered a piece in the Cloth & Culture Now exhibition.  It was an old watering can which had been embroidered (see right) by Lithuanian Severija Incirauskaite-Kriauneviciene.

One piece of text I am keen to use is 'Older women turn to God or gardening'.  I have a weather beaten wreck of a watering can, so I set about fitting the text to the size and shape of it, then the tricky job of drilling the holes.  It was far more difficult than I had imagined so I reduced

the number of drilled holes.  Luckily I have been experimenting with raised cross stitch which requires fewer piercings of the textile (or in this case the metal).

I had carefully measured the spacing for the drilled holes but the battered can was a mass of different angles, thicknesses and levels of rust. The holes will not be precisely positioned. 

The inside needed sanding to remove jagged edges.  The holes themselves made an interesting pattern - from the outside and, more especially, from the inside with the light shining through.