Traces is an exhibition of new work at The Tabernacle, Talgarth, by Susan Milne, Katherine Sheers and Helen Watkins. The artists have come together through a mutual love of textiles and collectively they occupy the practices of art, craft, design and the spaces in between. The exhibition draws a thread through both personal and communal history; bringing to light the cloth we wear close to our bodies during a lifetime and the textile fragments of our ancestors buried beneath the surface.
The artists apply a range of processes and techniques including embroidery, drawing, construction, stitching, and dyeing. Susan unearths decaying remnants of garments and archeological layers of human presence in our landscape and makes works in paper and collage. Katherine creates exquisite silk and lace specimens of concealment dyed with the purple fruits of local hedgerows. Helen’s banners of natural colour and woven texture are embroidered with the marks of human interaction in the Black Mountains.
Although each artist has a defined individual practice, there is an intriguing synergy amongst the three. The work of one artist imparts a further layer of meaning to another’s, and produces a cohesive and quietly powerful exhibition that responds sensitively to the unique interior of The Tabernacle.
Rebecca Spooner
Arts Development Manager, Arts Alive Wales
The three artists were recently awarded the Spring Mini-Fund, to support the exhibition at the Tabernacle. To find out more follow the link to Arts Alive Wales :
http://artsalivewales.org.uk/wp/11304/winner-of-the-creative-network-mini-fund/
SUSAN MILNE: Artist working with ideas about land and the development of the landscape. Current work: disintegration and fragmentation of organic and inorganic matter. The work, relating to garments and textiles, is made with mixed media, paper and fibers, and derives from drawings made from archeological fragments and museum artefacts. www.susanmilne.co.uk
KATHERINE SHEERS: Textile artist whose work questions the fundamental aspects of human emotion and how they relate to contemporary ideals of womanhood. Current work: specimens of concealment and vulnerability. Utilising the slow, ancient processes of natural dyeing and hand-stitching to colour, mark, reinforce and disguise upcycled silk, lace and cotton. www.katherinesheers.com
HELEN WATKINS: Textile artist and designer whose work is informed and inspired by the rites and rhythms of the surrounding agricultural landscape. Current work: natural plant dyed fabrics of linen, wool and silk; cutting, turning, crossing, joining, marking, represent an active, mindful and meditative intervention.
* With thanks to Rebecca Spooner /Arts Alive Wales
Photographs courtesy of Ann Dierikx Photography
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