{"id":1728,"date":"2012-11-17T15:36:23","date_gmt":"2012-11-17T20:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=1728"},"modified":"2012-11-17T15:36:23","modified_gmt":"2012-11-17T20:36:23","slug":"stitched-and-bound-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=1728","title":{"rendered":"Stitched And Bound 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stitched and Bound<\/em> is a biennial contemporary quilt show held in Perth, Western Australia.\u00a0 It has always been open to only state residents,\u00a0and so, living outside\u00a0WA as I have for some time, I\u00a0usually can’t enter.\u00a0\u00a0So this year I was delighted to be invited\u00a0to write\u00a0the catalogue essay.\u00a0 To do that, I therefore got to preview\u00a0images of all the quilts\u00a0the jurors selected,\u00a0which was great, since I felt sure\u00a0I’d be unable to visit Perth while this show was hanging through\u00a0september last.\u00a0 There were some very exciting pieces,\u00a0and although I was a little underwhelmed by a\u00a0few, I know there can be a huge difference in impact between a hanging quilt on a wall and a digital or catalogue\u00a0image; and there are always a couple of delightful surprises on opening night.\u00a0 I’d have loved to see it, but anyway, now the show is down I’d like to share some of my impressions, a review in effect, which includes a few exerpts from\u00a0my catalogue text,\u00a0and several images posted with\u00a0each artist’s permission.<\/p>\n

All contemporary quilts and quilt-like objects have a common heritage in the traditional stitched layered textiles that provide warm bedding in many parts of the world.\u00a0 Our Australian wagga has several international counterparts, among them \u2018britchy quilts\u2019 in USA, \u2018mantas traperas\u2019 (scrap covers) in Uruguay, \u2018boro futon\u2019 in Japan, and more.\u00a0 Whether produced from salvaged textiles or made from all new fabrics, typically traditional quilts combine decorative elements with the utility of warmth.\u00a0 Utility and decorative values assume different priorities according to source, but in many countries today traditional forms of quilt making have given rise to a thriving contemporary art form, the \u2018art quilt\u2019, whose only function is decorative.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Into this modern fabric-based genre come additional elements from other major decorative arts: painting, drawing, printmaking, photography and urban graffiti, whose symbolic or representative imageries invite the viewer to engage with the artist\u2019s personal observations and interpretations.\u00a0 A fine example of work combining these and more specific needlework traditions (below) was Marjorie Coleman’s piece, “The Tenants” 130cm h x 51cm w, <\/em>in which the surface design\u00a0of free hand stitchery considers,\u00a0in Marjorie’s words, “what happens over time on a limestone wall in a public walkway”:<\/em><\/p>\n

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plus detail of Marjorie Coleman’s work:<\/p>\n

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Some of these quilts feature surface designs of paint, print or dye.\u00a0 Textural surfaces link them to low relief sculptures and carvings.\u00a0\u00a0 Hand and machine stitch link them to other \u2018needle arts\u2019 including surface embroidery, spinning, crochet, knitting, and lacemaking.\u00a0 The themes and issues adopted by the individual artists also reflect what is on the minds of quilt artists elsewhere, and this ninth biennial exhibition, stitched and bound 2012<\/em>, shows work typical of art quilt exhibitions generally.\u00a0 Several\u00a0make social comment; there is beauty and ugliness;\u00a0 bemusement, philosophical contemplation, wonder and joy.\u00a0\u00a0 Small details are set against\u00a0some large concepts including strong personal convictions on current political and social and environmental issues. An exhibition such as this one highlights a major issue facing many contemporary art quilt makers:\u00a0 how to produce meaningful art in that zone of interplay between the whole heritage-of-the-quilt-as-bedcover-thing and the potential of the textile medium for significant contemporary art.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The allowable maximum dimensions were pretty typical – 200cm w x 300cm h –\u00a0yet only three works\u00a0came anywhere near those measurements, and the rest were a lot smaller.\u00a0 I wondered if\u00a0is this a time and materials constraint?\u00a0 Or are WA textile artists just not tackling large projects?\u00a0\u00a0 They’re not alone – its common elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Nothing in the entry conditions required all works to hang on a wall, so I was glad to see at least one artist constructed her work to be displayed flat\u00a0 – below is Marianne Penberthy\u2019s beautiful 20-part, 3D work, ”\u00a0Perhaps Renewal”,\u00a0 78cm\u00a0w\u00a0 x 46cm\u00a0h<\/em><\/p>\n

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Although art quilters come from different directions, many make a direct transition from traditional quilt making backgrounds, where technical excellence is most highly prized.\u00a0 For these quilt makers, pushing against the boundaries of traditional quilt making can be both liberating and occasionally bewildering, as here there are no rules and it would seem that for ideas, materials and techniques, anything goes.\u00a0 The wobbly lines and torn frayed edges on some of these quilts are not sloppy or inadequate workmanship; they result from artists\u2019 decisions to work that way for reasons to do with their subject.\u00a0\u00a0 Some artists chose to include irregular shapes and raw unfinished edges in their work, the most successful of which included\u00a0Cherry Johnston\u2019s \u201cOpen Circle” 95cm h x 100cm w:<\/em><\/p>\n

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showing front in full, \u00a0and on the right showing\u00a0part of the back including the edge.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Another piece with rough textures and edges,\u00a0carefully planned and controlled, was Louise Well’s “It’s not just what you see…”\u00a0 77cm h x 63cm w:<\/em><\/p>\n

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I loved this piece and would like to see it sometime.\u00a0 The title, which turned out to be entirely apt, intrugued me, as this is a design of\u00a0bright colours glimpsed through surface slashes on a duller fabric.\u00a0\u00a0I didn’t need\u00a0the artist’s statement which elaborated- “The hidden stories you hear by being in the right place and time, asking the right questions … amazing, wonderful and sometimes sad.\u00a0 This work is about 99 of those stories which have given me much admiration for the story tellers.”\u00a0 <\/em>Art quilt exhibitions generally ask for an artist statement, but I often wish they wouldn’t; as a few well chosen words in a title can be the most eloquent ‘statement’ of all, and further, and poorly worded or\u00a0windy\u00a0artist statements are more distracting than valuable. IMHO.<\/p>\n

The next point I am going to make is on an issue dear to my heart.\u00a0\u00a0 When the first of these biennials was organised back in 1995, it was felt that if those WA quilters who were experimenting with non-traditional quilts as art works were to be encouraged to enter such a show, they needed to know the whole show was not going to be swamped by competition from the decidedly strong works being made by many artists in that medium from other states, some of whom were internationally prominent at the time.\u00a0\u00a0Things have changed – and\u00a0with much strong work being done within Western Australia, I think textile artists no longer need this form of ‘protection’ from artists around the rest of the country. \u00a0All West Australian artists work in some degree of isolation even if they live in their\u00a0capital city, and anywhere else in the state they are certainly\u00a0a large physical distance from other major population centres in the country.\u00a0\u00a0For people wishing to travel to see textile exhibitions, travel is expensive over large distances, although now the\u00a0internet and\u00a0paper catalogues help counter that to some extent. On the very rare occasions\u00a0touring exhibitions do\u00a0appear in Western Australia, they\u00a0always bring new influences and spread new enthusiasm.\u00a0 But they are expensive to tour, and logistically demanding.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I have always thought it rather a shame that the exhibition is only open to WA residents – for, by making it open to\u00a0others around Australia, WA textile art lovers and contemporary quiltmakers could\u00a0expect to see first hand\u00a0some\u00a0work from makers around the nation included in this now well\u00a0established biennial.\u00a0 Greater competition from outside WA would only serve to\u00a0encourage new levels of\u00a0experimentation and innovation, by all practitioners of quilted textile art.\u00a0 The WAQA membership may comprise mostly traditional quiltmakers, but there is a strong segment of people learning and experimenting beyond the traditional, and within mainstream quilters there is quite a large segment of makers who, although they do not work these ways themselves, nevertheless have interest in what is happening in the contemporary field.<\/p>\n

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Stitched and Bound is a biennial contemporary quilt show held in Perth, Western Australia.\u00a0 It has always been open to only state residents,\u00a0and so, living outside\u00a0WA as I have for some time, I\u00a0usually can’t enter.\u00a0\u00a0So this year I was delighted to be invited\u00a0to write\u00a0the catalogue essay.\u00a0 To do that, I therefore got to preview\u00a0images of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6uxpF-rS","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1728"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1819,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions\/1819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}