Unfolding: New Indian Textiles Exhibition

I recently had the pleasure of visiting the "Unfolding: New Indian Textiles" Exhibition held at the Fremantle Arts Centre and was blown away by the amazing work created by contemporary Indian fashion designers and textile artists.

This exhibition is curated by Maggie Baxter, a West Australian textile artist who has a long connection to the textile works of India, and what a brilliant job she's done in bringing this exhibition to Australia.

I brought my sister along for the day, and it was wonderful to have someone to "oooh" and "aghh" with, and we definitely did a lot of oohing and aghing, because each new item stunned us even more. The black and white leaf design above was one of the first items we saw as we entered the gallery, and I don't think the photograph does it justice.  It's Aari embroidery (silk thread on silk organza created by using a tambour) created by Mayank Masingh Kaul, and is simply beautiful. 

There were a number of canvases like the one above which were incredible.  This one is called "Rabari" by Play Clan, and is a screen print with hand embroidery on cotton canvas.  If you look closely you will see the vast amount of beading stitched onto the canvas.    

Another, is this one above, entitled "Ghat" by Play Clan - again, you need to zoom right in to see the enormous amount of tiny stitching and beading, to truly appreciate the work that has gone into these pieces.

As I'm quite partial to a bit of sparkle, I did love the sequins trapped between layers of fabric on some of the items of clothing.

I spent a lot of time looking at this Neran embroidery created by Chandra Shroff with Jai Bhatt Singh. This is rayon thread on hand woven wool, courtesy of The Shrujan Trust, Kutch.  As a hand embroiderer myself, I know the amount of hours that goes into anything hand stitched, and I couldn't begin to estimate the time it would have taken to stitch this.  

 Each item that I looked at left me amazed.

This woven piece of fabric called "Latitude" by Bai Lou is made of single filature silk warp and weft with spun silk bands and sequins.  The designers were awarded the UNESCO Seal of Excellence for Handcrafts for creating this special technique of weaving sequins into pockets in the cloth. 

The shawl above has been created by Kirit Dave, and is a wonderful example of Ahir embroidery - rayon thread on hand woven wool.   

Unfortunately I didn't photograph the artist or technique for the above piece, but I believe its silk ikat and has been hand stitched over the top with a gold coloured thread.

Here are some more of the wonderful woven sari fabrics, and below is part of a silk Kimono stitched with sujani embroidery

 Some more work by Bai Lou, hand woven linen with missing warp and weft with inlaid sequins.

The scarf pictured below is marbled and bandhini silk by 11.11/eleven eleven.  They have a facebook page with many photos of their incredible work.  Follow the link here:  eleven eleven 

I took loads more photos, as I wanted to remember everything I'd seen and learn more about the artists and technique, but it would be unfair to post them all here.  Instead I would suggest you visit this travelling exhibition whenever you get the chance as it's well worth it, and for those of you in WA you need to be quick as it finishes this Saturday.

I've put as many links as possible through this post, as I feel its well worth expanding and learning about the work that these artists are creating, its fascinating and very inspiring.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Inspiration from the Craft Fair

I was so impressed with this years WA Craft Show at Claremont Showgrounds that I wanted to share some of the highlights with you, like these fabulous quilt creations from "Just One More Stitch".

and the marvellous textile and fibre art from "Designing Women".

Dale Rollerson's work never fails to inspire me.

But for me, the big draw card this year was Alison Cole and her superb stumpwork and goldwork embroidery.  Her work is simply stunning, so fine and well executed, with a wonderful selection of styles and themes to entice you.  Not only that, she's a lovely lady too - we sat and chatted quite a bit together at the end of the day, and I came home all inspired to create a stumpwork design - something I've not done in a number of years.

Each year the fair holds its Art to Wear display and as always the artists imagination is awe inspiring, like this dress made by Minni Karamfiles, all made of ringpulls from aluminium drink cans.  Incredible!! 

and this work of art from Jan Rowe - such an amazing amount of texture created in this piece and the colours were extraordinary.  I couldn't begin to imagine the number of hours work that went into creating this piece.

There was one piece in particular that caught my eye, and that was the eco dyed dress made by Jane Flower.  The colours and patterns in her work really appealed to me and I spent quite a long time chatting with her and went away itching to set a date on the calendar to attend one of her workshops.  Fortunately she lives not too far away from me, so as soon as I get a slot in my calendar I'll be off there in a shot.

 

There's something so appealing about the natural colours and patterns in Jane's work that I kept going back to her stand time and again, just to soak it all in.  She certainly inspired me, and since the show I've spent a lot of time googling eco dyeing, so watch for future posts, I might have something to share with you soon.

Another guest this year was Ro Bruhn, whose work is so colourful and vibrant.  It makes you want to pull out your paint box and have a go. They were such happy bright pieces.

Val Hornibrook is a West Australian artist and her felted pieces were also colourful and enticing.

There were many exhibitions of art quilts and textile and fibre art from leading artists from all over Australia and internationally.  But the one that stood out the most was The Sentinelles, by Dijanne Cevaal.

I couldn't get enough of this wonderful display.  My brain was like a sponge trying to take it all in - so many different approaches to embroidery and colour, and the way the display was set out showing the colours changing as they moved around the colour wheel was incredible.  If you ever get the chance to see this travelling exhibition I thoroughly recommend it.

And last but certainly not least, was the Kimberley Dreaming exhibition run by Dale Rollerson of The Thread Studio.  Unfortunately my photos don't reflect the true colours of some of these masterpieces.  They were the colours of Australia, and were simply beautiful.

There are so many talented people all around us every day who work hard in their creative fields, and I'm always so grateful to these people for sharing their inspiration, ideas and techniques with us all. So a huge thank you.  I had a brilliant day, my mind is spinning with inspiration and I can't wait for next years show.