Category: Art

  • The Price of Memory

    In 2015, the National Gallery of Jamaica hosted an exhibition of 7 women artists. One of those artists was Miriam Hinds Smith. Miriam Hinds Smith is a Jamaican-born artist with a textile diploma from the country and a Masters Degree in Fine Art from the UK. Her art explores materials and indigenous knowledge, using textiles…

  • A visit to the white herons

    South of Māwhera Greymouth is the settlement of Ōkārito. A couple of weekends ago I spent three days in the area, camping out in a thunderstorm and enjoying the beautiful wildlife, scenery and weather of this part of the West Coast. One of the reasons to go down was to see the kōtuku – the…

  • Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London

    A new exhibition is about to open in London’s Fashion and Textiles Museum, celebrating the fashion of the 1980s alternative scene. In 1985, Leigh Bowery, designer and performance artist, opened Taboo, a nightclub that became part of legend. This show is centred on the club, and showcases the film, photography, costume and accessories that made…

  • The Australian autograph textile with a South African link

    In 1894, as was a custom in those days, a quilt was created to raise funds for a new Anglican church in Sunbury, Australia. People were able to subscribe to the undertaking by having their names, signatures, motifs or initials embroidered onto squares that were then stitched together to form the completed quilt. This particular…

  • Kate Beck’s Impossible Evolutions

    The natural world is almost impossible to imagine in its complexity and intertwined relationships and yet much of that world is under threat. Using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) Kate Beck trains these AI machines to understand how insects, plants and their pollinators support each other, and allow us to think about what might happen in…

  • Spotify this week

    Each week a playlist is curated to reflect the blog articles. The whole playlist is available on the Spotify platform and can be heard by clicking on the player above or by searching for “Music to read a blog by” on Spotify.

  • Slow Violence: Anna Madeleine Raupach

    The Australian artist, Anna Madeleine Raupach, uses textiles and textile techniques to explore social, political and cultural aspects of today through science and technology. In the series, Slow Violence, the artist has used thermal blankets, used in emergencies, to depict maps of the devastating fires in the Blue Mountains of Australia. Embroidering through the blankets…

  • This week’s Spotify playlist

    Each week the blog is accompanied by a Spotify playlist of pieces that are somehow connected to the entries. To listen to the playlist you can click on the player above or search for “Music to read a blog by” on the Spotify platform. If you have a paid subscription you will hear all the…

  • The lace of Rowan Panther

    Rowan Panther is an artist who works with muka to create beautiful lace pieces that reference her Samoan, Irish, English and Prussian heritage. Muka is made from harakeke/ New Zealand flax. The threads are stripped from the leaves of the plant with the aid of a mussel shell and when they are washed they offer…

  • Tau Lewis

    Tau Lewis is a Candian artist who lives in the United States where her first solo show in the country has opened. Using textiles and found objects Lewis has created a mythological world, populated by huge figures surrounding a quilt with a starfish at its centre. Spirit Level is monumental storytelling; an exploration of materials…