Gallery of past work

Monday 13 September 2021

Brunel Broderers in Stroud

Brunel Broderers is currently showing work in the Lansdown Gallery, Stroud, under the title Inhabit.  Details of the exhibition can be found in the side bar of this blog. 

Members work in a variety of methodologies, although embroidery is generally at the centre of what we do. On show this time, there is a mix of wall work of different kinds and 3D installations. There are pieces on paper and card as well as on cloth. 


As I have explained in several previous posts, the work I am showing this time mostly explores the spectacular skylines of modern cities with their high rise office blocks and reflections. In the main, it was developed from a single photograph of a high rise building in Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia. This photo was enlarged, manipulated, overlaid and cropped repeatedly in Photoshop.  


Three Towers 
Printed and cut card hand stitched together with thread

This small installation on glass contains imagery derived from reflections and also from the visible external structures which hold the building together. The text printed softly on the internal walls of the towers is from a small artist's book that I intend to show in my next post. 

However, despite the dramatic outward appearance of these exciting structures, there are hints throughout my work at the destruction of ancient ways of life when such modern development proceeds unrestrained. A circle stitched or printed into the work references this darker social history. 

Three Strips
Pieced from painted and printed fabric and hand stitched 

I had particular fun with a series of small card labels designed to hang and turn and with applied printed, cut and punched images back and front. This time the circle or part circle was the dominant form in each piece, with the reflection imagery from the Darling Harbour photograph contained within. 

Miniature Reflections 
A series of labels each with applied printed and cut card circles and part circles

Brunel Broderers is a group of textile artists and embroiderers (currently numbering 5) based in Gloucestershire and surrounding counties. I have now been a member for three years, although the group has a long history.  It is always a pleasure to exhibit with them. 

There will be more work to come in future posts ...



4 comments:

  1. Beautiful space and such interesting exploratory work you are doing. I did not realize that this was going to result in those 3-d works. Or the concept of tags hanging. Wish I could see all this in person to fully study and ponder.

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    1. Thank you very much Sheila for your kind comments. It is always good to hear how my work resonates with you.

      When I began this new work, I had only the vaguest of ideas of where it would go - but that is the exciting nature of exploration, isn't it? The main thought in my head was that I have been wanting to do some 3D work for sometime and exploring high rise buildings and their reflections seemed to offer a most appropriate opportunity. Leading up to these pieces, there was a great deal of exploration, especially through all the lockdowns.

      I know there is more to come and we hope to tour this exhibition with some new work to another gallery we've visited some distance south of here sometime next year. I'm just beginning to consider where I might go now as this current exhibition ends.

      I too wish you could see this in person and that we could meet up and discuss things together. How interesting that would be. I suspect much useful learning would result!

      I will be posting further work in this series in the next few days - both here and on Instagram - where people seem increasingly to be congregating ...

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    2. Wouldn't that be something, to be in the same room together with your work (and that of others) to discuss it? It is good to hear that there are exhibit opportunities in the future to keep giving you incentive for further explorations.

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