Tag: travel

  • A reader contributes

    This week a reader from South Africa has sent in a Facebook link to “Architecture of Return“, an artwork of the floor plan of the British Museum on a blue deer hide, along with symbols for the artefacts that are held in the Museum’s collections. This piece references the hide paintings that convey histories across…

  • Away again

    For the next two weeks I will be away, first in Christchurch, then Auckland before driving down to Wellington to give a talk to the Shetland Society of Wellington. The blog will continue as far as possible while I am travelling. I look forward to sharing the travel with you all.

  • Compuknit

    A recent addition to the studio collection are two packs of vintage Compuknit from 1974. Compuknit was a system for knitting garments. These two packs were published, under licence from Wolmark, South Africa, in Salisbury, now Harare, in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. The packs contain pairs of discs that each have a moveable rotating back. In…

  • New items for the library

    The studio library continues to grow. Keiskamma Art Project is based in the village of Hamburg in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Established by the Keisakamma Trust, an organisation with the aim to “build healthy communities in all respects”, there are four strands to the work of the Trust: Art, Music, Health and Education.…

  • Shae Bishop – ceramic cowboy

    Shae Bishop is a ceramic artist who uses his discipline to create distinctive costumes. Based in Virginia in the USA, the artist works with clay to make portraits through clothing. His pieces cross-over between tiles and textile, making the wearer both invincible and vulnerable. Check out more of the artist’s work here and read an…

  • Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa

    Zeitz MoCAA is carved out of old grain silos on the quayside of Cape Town’s docks and features the contemporary art of Africa. One Must Be Seated is a multi-disciplinary show by Ghanaian-American artist Rita Mawuena Benissan of her Ghanaian culture. Reimagining the royal umbrella and stool that represent Akan chieftaincy through tapestry, video, photography…

  • The Spotify playlist

    Most weeks, a playlist on the streaming platform, Spotify, accompanies the entries on the blog. Each of the pieces reflects something in the blog although sometimes the link is obscure. To listen to the playlist click on the player above or head over to Spotify online or in the app and search for “Music to…

  • Reader contributions

    There are four textile-related exhibitions on in Chicago in the USA at the moment. Jacqueline Surdell is showing at Secrist | Beach, Kiah Celeste at Document, Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, and the Art Institute of Chicago has On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival on show until March next year.

  • Flowering Cape

    Spring in the Cape of South Africa can be a riot of colour. The native flora of the Cape is 69% endemic, meaning that it grows nowhere else in the world naturally. That makes it an important hotspot for biodiversity. Every Spring the bulbs flower in what looks like unpromising areas, transforming the landscape with…

  • Bulawayo

    A trip to Bulawayo in September 2025