Born 1978, Celia Pym is a contemporary artist that uses textile as a way to explore a mending technique. she studied sculpture at Harvard and went on to gain an MA in constructed textiles at the royal college of art, London. Later in her early 30’s she went on to train as a nurse, which is something you can see leach into her art; the exploration of care is an important factor of her work. Her mending work began when she inherited a jumper worn by her uncle, an artist who had just passed away, the sleeves had completely worn through in places where he had leaned on his arms to create his work. She saw this as a really important part of his history and it was documented by something physical leftover, instead of trying to hide the holes she mended them with a contrast colour of wool to highlight and preserve his own unique movement and use of the jumper. Whilst doing this she noticed darning that her aunt had done to salvage this jumper before she had passed away; pym saw how a piece of fabric could hold so much presence and personality of people. Along with this she realised the care that goes into tending to it, looking after something for such a long period of time suggest it is an object that is well loved.

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From this initial realisation came a project called “the catalogue of holes” beginning in 2007. She invites people to bring garments to her and they discuss the story behind it and what the best way to mend it would be. This interaction also builds another relationship into the story as she is the one mending it; it feels like an act of remembrance for the time passed since the fabric was new. she talks about how “Darning is small acts of care and paying attention. The damage, in a way, does the work for me” she goes on “I respond to it. The mending is slow work to hold the damage in place.”

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Alongside these mending works is a large collection of work that explores collage-like versions of her main focus. They look at reusing found materials, colour, form and negative space. Even though this work is quite different you can still witness the care at the centre point of her theme. Using textile as a medium invites touch, it shows that the work is made to be a second skin of someone or at least an item to interact with the body. The tenderness of touch is a key factor of her theme, i think this is what inspires me. The way she looks at interpersonal relationships is really special and honours areas of imperfection. The contrast between damage and healing is something i hadn’t thought about before and id like to find ways to explore this in my own work, perhaps by finding my own way to mend gaps in my sequential work.

Conceptual artist, feminist, educator and writer. Kelly, born 1942 in iowa, is recognised for her rich contributions towards the artistic exploration of feminism and postmodernism.

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One of her most notable works is “Post-Partum Document” in which she creates a documentation of the relationship and shared experience between her and her child for their first 6 years since birth. It came at a time where artists were starting to explore what it means to be a women in contemporary art by reclaiming their bodies through performance or learning about and drawing attention to previously ignored women. Kelly wanted to look at the often hidden experience of day to day when bringing up a child. She does this in a variety of different ways, using associated materials like nappies and clothes, writing in depth analysis of interactions, collecting drawings and writings from him. She also explored the transitions she went through in relation to the child’s experience by documenting her internal thoughts and how she adapts alongside the birth and growth of the child.

This documentation creates a narrative over a period of a mother’s life that isn’t often seen from the outside. Unlike most other artworks, there is a story built up over time that cant be undone or rubbed out because the subject is her son; everything that he experiences will create him as a person, being able to study this in detail is something that is very rare. You can see from her writing that she is figuring things out for herself as she goes along whilst also experiencing the judgement and opinions of others. The use of dirty nappies in her work is something that changed the level of exposure to motherhood that art critics had seen previously, the shock factor perhaps was key in forming a space to discuss mother and child in depth.

Im really interested in kellys use of material, collecting bits of evidence from this relationship and altering it to sum up an interaction and key moment. I think i have started doing this in my own work by selecting important imagery that sparks a vivid memory or association. i also think that fact that its a large series of work is important to the fact that she is telling a story; it is hard to sum up something of that significance with one work. i can see this is perhaps true for my work too, it will help to explore ways in which i can create a narrative that acknowledges the many moving parts of a mother daughter relationship.

“‘Spinning a yarn’, ‘weaving tales’, or ‘plot threads’: these familiar expressions all hint at a long-lasting metaphorical connection between storytelling and cloth-making. The English words ‘text’ and ‘textile’ even have a shared origin in the Latin word texere, ‘to weave’. Ancient Greek and Roman writers too saw connections between the crafts of fabric creation and composing poetry. Yet, despite this emphasis on the links between storytelling and weaving, in the ancient sources these two types of activity were often sharply divided along gendered lines.”- Dr Emma Bridges (https://london.ac.uk/news-and-opinion/leading-women/arachne-craftivism-weaving-womens-stories)

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After the sequential art workshop i have started to realise the links that it has to my theme. The idea of nurture/care being a straightforward ‘give and receive’ act does not always fit with a mother child bond. In my experience like a story it has had many ups and downs along with contradictions. Thinking about the idea of nurture as a story filled with gaps has helped me to explore the inconsistency that comes with it.

looking into the history of weaving it is interesting to see how it has always been the work of women and indirectly documented their stories in contrast to the typically written texts of men. I think this holds a really strong link for me personally, being told by mostly male teachers that my writing is not good and lacks structure or clarity, i have returned to the crafts i learnt from my mother as a child. It feels often that the voices of women are not celebrated enough for the solidity of text. Although things aren’t quite the same now, I can really appreciate how the creation of cloth can in some ways communicate that experience. I am reminded of ‘Arachne’ in greek mythology, a young weaver confident in her skill so much that she is turned into a spider by athena for boasting that she is better. And the works of louise bourgeois, also portraying her mother as a spider, a creature so often connected with evil whilst also being so skilled and well equipped to weave a nest for their young and consume the male in search of nutrition. And another story of Penelope, Odysseus’s wife, who is often written about sitting next to her loom or unravelling her weaving in devotion to her husband. I find it interesting that the women in these stories are celebrated for the virtuous nature or devotion to men and then punished for being too loud or too skilled.

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I have started to combine text and fabric work and have realised now how it connects to storytelling. when i think about storytelling i think about how its purpose is to create a perfect scenario, where each character has an intention, and at the end a lesson is formed. The process of writing a story is not that different to weaving cloth, i will keep this in mind whilst making more work to see if this might effect the combination of forming imagery and involving text.

Moving forward to 1919, the bauhaus was created with the intention to hold equal places for men and women within art. However, this did not become the case and reinforced the typical roles of gender, often the woman approaching the institution were not accepted into any program other than the textile workshops. This didn’t hold them back, the result was a total reinvention of how materials can be used. They brought skills typically referred to as women’s work into the fine art world, exploring new forms and techniques.

In more recent years contemporary women artist are reclaiming the loom to challenge what was expected of them for so long. Artists such as Judy Chicago and Erin M Riley are creating bold depictions of a women’s experience from childbirth to body hair. I think through the making of textile over time you would be able to see the slow arising but important victories of women’s freedom. Ive started to realise that maybe my project is more to do with a mother daughter relationship than i had hoped but i feel that this medium could be a really important one to utilise considering the ongoing connection with female experience.

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Toshiko macadams is a Japanese artist based in Nova scotia, canada. she is known for her large sculptural textile work and brightly coloured crochet work.

she speaks of coming from a long line of physicians and intends to carry on the wishes of her family before her. However she chose to go down that path of art as she feels creating her work is her own way of impacting people. Just by taking a first glance at the work you can tell it was made for human interaction, the vibrant colours and off shapes are so tempting and invite the viewer to explore through touch. Her work discusses how “textiles were made for the human body” as second skin and something everyone has a relationship with.

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She created a series of “net play works” starting in 1979, large scale nets crocheted out of heaps of nylon rope by a team of the artists assistants; commissioned by museums and galleries as a work of public art that children can interact with. In this work there are holes and surfaces begging to be explored, touched, clambered over. it invokes the childlike sense of play most adults can relate to and provides an exciting sensory experience for young children. It was intended as a children’s playground , to provide something unique for them to get completely lost in. She felt that children were not learning from just seeing art or history in a gallery and needed something a lot more immersive and engaging.

I found it really interesting to see such unique shapes and textures be so obviously related to childs play. The soft and stretchy netting reminded me of the plasticity of a young mind and the importance of enrichment. I think using wool to weave or crochet could be really relevant to my theme if i want to relate back to a child experience. i want to invoke a similar sort of response with my work by having a tactillity to it and also being something that is recognisable as a source of care, calm and intrigue.