Hippystitch

Wednesday, 8 January 2025

Socks: The Art of Care and Repair - Celia Pym at NOW Gallery, Greenwich Peninsula, London

Celia Pym - John, Dad, Kent

Recently I went to see Celia Pym's "Socks: The Art of Care and Repair" at the NOW Gallery on Greenwich Peninsula in London. This is Now gallery's 2024 Fashion Commission, focusing on sustainability through the act of mending and repair through darning. I read online that over 21,000 million pairs of socks are made globally every year and also, globally, 92 million tonnes of textile waste goes to landfill. Clothes are discarded on a whim, including socks perhaps with only a small hole which could easily be repaired. Come to the NOW gallery and there are socks aplenty for you to have a go at mending, darning and stitching. Learn a new skill or improve an old one and maybe that will inspire you to take "care" of your clothes and make your contribution to a more sustainable future. Now Gallery certainly hope so!

Celia Pym - Family & Friends Mended Socks 2024

On display is a newly commissioned artwork, by Celia Pym, of socks from her friends and family that she has mended, visibly, in colours to suit their personality. The patterns of wear thus stand out for us to see. Celia's creative practice embraces damage and repair and the care that is involved in mending. In fact Pym says "It is a small act of care to mend a hole in your sock, or the sock of someone you love. Mending is an action that changes the thing in front of you. It doesn't erase the damage but makes the story of a sock, or any mended garment, more interesting. A spot of bright colour or a scar line that indicates an act of care."

Celia Pym -Family & Friends Mended Socks 2024 (detail)
Clockwise from top left - Hope, Mum, Kent (long); Bill, Friend, Gothenburg (blue); Karin, Friend, London (yellow); John, Dad, Kent; Takeshi, Friend, London (single sock); Jane, Friend, Derbyshire (navy); Agnes, Niece, Kent (grey) ; Jan Jan, Friend, London

Socks stitched by the Surrey Square Primary School Community

The exhibition doesn't just include Celia's sock mending. What makes it even more interesting is that it includes 488 socks stitched by the Surrey Square Primary School Community in South East London using "warehouse waste" socks (socks with small imperfections that couldn't be sold). The socks came from J A Swift, a family run business in Hathern, Leicestershire established in 1895. Children, staff and families practised their sock darning and stitching in a series of 26 workshops that Pym organised between April and July 2024. We are told that "The project encouraged resilience in being able to mend something; creativity to play with colour and yarn, and a feeling of care for yourself - for your clothes, the environment, and importantly, the clothes of other people."

Yellow socks stitched by Year 2, green socks stitched by Year 3

I love this involvement of the community and passing on sewing skills to a new generation. Many of the children didn't know what darning was, had never seen a needle and didn't know how to use one.

Red socks stitched by Year 1, pink socks stitched by Reception, purple socks stitched by staff

The colours of the socks represent the year groups involved from the white of nursery children through to black of year 6 with the staff's purple socks distributed among them.

White socks have been stitched by Nursery age children

There were pictures of beaming children proudly holding up their stitched socks and some of the artwork they had done for their stitched socks. All the children and staff who had taken part were named.

Visitors' Mends

There were plenty of resources there to have a go at darning and stitching yourself and you could leave or take away your work. I left mine.

My mend

There are also a number of bookable events associated with the exhibition. Take a look here. It's on until 9 March 2025, so you've got plenty of time to pop along! It's a small but joyful exhibition. Do go if you can.

Greenwich - clockwise from top left:
Yinka Shonibare - Nelson's Ship in a Bottle outside the National Maritime Museum; the Royal Obervatory & Flamsteed House, Greenwich Park; Trinity Hospital Almshouses; the Old Royal Naval College

There isn't a cafe in the NOW Gallery but there are plenty nearby. The nearest tube station is North Greenwich on the Jubilee line. There's plenty to do in the vicinity. There's an art trail round Greenwich Peninsula with over 17 pieces of art. After taking a look, we walked to Greenwich along the Thames footpath. Much of Greenwich is a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the Old Royal Naval College, the National Maritime Museum, the Royal Observatory and the ship - Cutty Sark to name a few significant sites.

Greenwich Peninsula - clockwise from top left:
Damien Hirst - Demon with Bowl; IFS Cloud Cable Car; Richard Wilson - Slice of Reality; Uber Boat ride.

Later we got a Uber Boat by Thames Clippers back and took the IFS Cloud Cable Car across the river. It made a great day out.

Sunday, 15 December 2024

Monet and London - Views of the Thames at The Courtauld, London

Monet - Charing Cross Bridge. Smoke in the Fog; Impression

The Courtauld Gallery in London is currently showing "Monet and London - Views of the Thames" until 19 January 2025. These are views of the Thames painted mostly from Monet's balcony at The Savoy Hotel beginning in 1899. They focus on the three sites of Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. He was fascinated by the mix of fog and sunlight, combined with the smoke from London's industry and how it affected the light, colours and clarity of the views.

Monet - Charing Cross Bridge. Fog on the Thames

Monet - The Houses of Parliament. Effect of Fog, London

Monet - The Houses of Parliament, Sunset

Monet completed 37 paintings of views of the Thames which were exhibited in Paris in 1904 to great critical acclaim and commercial success, confirming his reputation as France's leading artist. He wanted to exhibit the series in London in 1905 but it never happened. This exhibition reunites 21 of those works in London as Monet had hoped to do all those years ago.

Many of the paintings are largely in pink and purple shades and some are quite yellow. As we no longer have the smogs of yesteryear we can't know how true to life they are but they certainly have plenty of atmosphere. To see the same views in different atmospheric conditions is really interesting...

Monet - Waterloo Bridge, Effect of Sunlight in the Fog

Monet - Waterloo Bridge, Overcast Weather

Monet - Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect

As well as the Monet exhibition the Courtauld also has a permanent collection you can visit. Here are some of my favourites. I love the angularity of Cezanne's painting of Lake Annecy...

Cezanne - Lac d'Annecy

and everything about The Card Players...

Cezanne - The Card Players

The texture in Van Gogh's painting and Frank Auerbach's make you want to run your fingers over the painted surface (but, of course, you can't!)...

Van Gogh - Peach Trees in Blossom (detail)

Frank Auerbach - Rebuilding the Cinema Leicester Square (detail)

Duncan Grant was apparently inspired by Cezanne - perhaps that's why I like this piece...

Duncan Grant - Still life - The Dinner Table

I'm drawn to the shape and colours of this painting, painted during the Second World War, offering a different view of the world but reminding us of the time with the poppies in the vase on the table...

Ivon Hitchens - Balcony View, Iping Church

This is Lanyon's depiction of Halsetown, a village near St Ives in Cornwall. Lanyon flew gliders. Infact he died after a gliding accident. I wonder if his view from above informs this abstract work...

Peter Lanyon - Halsetown

The Courtauld has an impressive staircase (lifts are also available)...

The Courtauld - Staircase

The Courtauld Gallery is part of Somerset House. There are a number of cafes there including the Art Cafe at the Courtauld. There are also lockers, toilets and a shop. If you want to see the Monet exhibition, book well in advance as it is very popular. Covent Garden, Charing Cross, Embankment and Temple Tube Stations are all quite close. The Monet exhibition is in two rooms but there is also the permanent collection that you might like to visit while you're there.

Tuesday, 26 November 2024

Making As Learning - The Sixty Two Group - Salt's Mill, Saltaire

Jae Maries - Widening Horizons

The Sixty Two Group's recent exhibition Making as Learning has now finished in the roof space at Salt's Mill in Saltaire. We are told that "The theme 'Making as Learning' was inspired by and dedicated to former 62 Group member Audrey Walker MBE (1928-2020), both as an educator and artist. The exhibition explores the role of making and learning in our creative practice. Members interrogate their textile practices, unravelling working processes and inspirations as part of a continuing journey of discovery."

Jan Beaney - Transience

There was some great work on display and here are just some of my top picks. I am drawn to mixed media pieces, assemblages and texture so expect to see a preponderance of such works.

Jae Maries's shoreline scene (top image) experiments with new techniques, materials and approaches to her textile art. Off cuts from a visual diary and old work make up the boardwalk. I love the movement and texture in this piece.

Jan Beaney's Transience (above) is inspired by Charmouth beach and the eroding and etched stone surfaces revealed at low tide. You just want to run your hands over this to feel the uneven surfaces.

Ann Goddard - Collection #2 (Collaged Constructions) detail

Ann makes constructions from rusty objects, natural materials, recycled artworks and other items from her stash. She experiments with these materials and I am fascinated by the results.

Eszter Bornemisza - Delve and Discover

Eszter experiemnts with new materials and techniques as a matter of course to turn her ideas into something tangible. Distortion, layering and transparency are all techniques employed in her joined up samples here.

Gavin Fry - Unfinished Symphony II

Gavin's assemblage of handstitching and found objects is an expression of the foregrounding of touch over practicality. This is a particularly pleasing, curious piece.

Jane McKeating - Flight Path

Jane McKeating's work is a connection between the story she is telling (what is happening in the world beneath a flight path) and the materials she chooses to experiment with to tell it (roller blind fabric, printing, gouache and inks)

Hannah Lamb - Inheritance

Hannah's cyanotypes and textile making is something she has learned through making, through watching others, through doing and undoing to gain knowledge which she can now pass on to her students whilst also recognising that she can also learn things from them.

Helen Yardley - Cerise Wall Felt & Cornish Grey Wall Felt

Helen Yardley's colourful wall felts are decorative acoustic wallhangings inspired by Matisse's collage with added paint, print and stitch. I love the stitched elements of these simple abstract pieces. They are quite wonderful.

Debbie Lydon - Findings (out)

Debbie Lydon collects found objects with which she experiments through manipulation, treatments and reworking. They may be stitched, waxed, painted, glued, bound, suspended or contained and remain her learning experiments rather than finished pieces. I love them.

Shuna Rendel - Spinning out of control

Experimenting with apple prunings, bark and maize husks, Shuna has experimented with her materials to create a piece inspired by the mill setting in which it is exhibited. She is hoping to evoke a picture of bobbins of wool with trailing threads.

Sue Stone - Integrated detail

Sue's piece, Integrated, is a collage of digital prints of previous works which have then been worked on with hand and machine stitching to provide extra detail. A combination of traditional and modern techniques, they are hung so you can see this stitching clearly on the reverse as another layer, and almost another work.

Lucy Brown - Loss (Ball 'n' Tress) detail

Made from the artist's hand spun hair tresses and handmade hairballs, Lucy Brown's piece references the mill's spinning room. In fact Lucy taught herself to spin using her own hair to create the piece.

A selection of pieces from this exhibition will be on display at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate so you may have seen them there if you missed them at Salt's Mill.

Saturday, 9 November 2024

York Makers Winter Fair - Saturday 23 November 2024

It's that time of year again, the York Makers Winter Fair will soon be here. It's a lovely event with lots of interesting local artists and makers who will be exhibiting. There will be all sorts of jewellery, textiles, art, cards and prints, ceramics, clothing, leather goods, candles, stained glass, felted items, wooden birds and animals, wildlife sculptures in paper clay and baked goods. Entry is free and there's a cafe. It's all happening at Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, York, YO23 1BW on Saturday 23 November 2024 from 10am to 4pm. Do come along!

Hippystitch Fabric Necklaces

I shall be there and I thought I'd give you a sneaky peak at some of the things I'll be bringing. I will, of course, have lots of fabric necklaces in gorgeous Liberty prints. I have some new vintage tin brooches...