Degrees of Refinement - Clothing as Art, Art from Clothing shows the work of Linden Braye, Rachel Buckeridge, Lesley Giovanelli, Anne Graham, Pam Kleemann and Eva Simmons.
open
Friday – Sunday 11am-5pm, 7 - 15 April
A group of sculptors, who incorporate clothing and
textiles into their art works, will come together to create a highly tactile
exhibition with colourful installations, freestanding sculptures and wall
works. Clothing can represent the body but also signify cultural attitudes and
personal beliefs. Degrees of Refinement is a term coined by Christina Murdoch
Mills* referring to signs of process which impact on how viewers experience the
work, their sensory experience and understanding of it. The process visible in
the clothes, the fabrics and the works themselves ranges from rough, crude and
raw to smooth and highly finished.
Individual identities emerge in some of these
works. Anne Graham felts the hair
of her friend’s dog. Items of clothing, given by friends, become rich icons in
the centre of Lesley Giovanelli’s wall of colour, whilst Pam Kleemann decorates
a template based on the graduation dress of the mother of Adrienne Wheeler, an African-American
artist. For Eva Simmons it’s a more personal journey, using embroidery and
construction to explore her own sensuality and sexuality.
Alternatively, for Rachel Buckeridge and Linden Braye,
the collecting of discarded objects, old fabric and clothing offers some
distance from a particular owner. Rachel uses old beach towels to create a
fictive life for a folk character in one
of Karen Dalten's songs whilst Linden’s reclamation of fur coats and damaged carpets
humorously resurrects the forgotten past.
Throughout this
exhibition the multiplicity of materials- natural, synthetic, animal and plant
as well as the many techniques used, work to create a highly textured and
engaging experience.
*Christina Murdoch Mills in Materiality as the Basis for the Aesthetic Experience in Contemporary
Art
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| Eva Simmons |
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| Linden Braye |
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| Lesley Giovanelli |
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| Rachel Buckeridge |
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| Pam Kleemann |
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| Anne Graham |