Here is the final chapter to Module 6 and the last posting of my Diploma
Stitch:
functional or decorative?
Stitch
in textile art – is it functional to the physical integrity of the artwork, or
purely decorative and thereby the definer of artistic quality?
It is
not a question I had generally considered when viewing textile art; after all
it is not something that comes to mind looking at gallery paintings or
ceramics. The paint strokes clearly do
not hold the painting together or the glazes the clay, and yet they impart a
texture, a movement and an aesthetic to the work that is present in many
beautiful weavings borne out of functional stitches.
The
weaving and coiling of Indigenous Australian artists researched during my last
diploma module of work are clearly functional in their creation of vessels from
grasses, but also highly decorative in stitch technique and adornment. (Figure 1)
Figure 1: Fibre sculpture detail by APY*
artists
This
fibre art enables the artists to express their culture and interest in their
local habitat in the form of highly tactile sculptures. They have a drive to create in this way, and
a desire to continue the creation by passing on traditional skills to the next
generation. This passion led me to think
of three British textile artists whose works exude their enthusiasm for stitch
and inspire me to express myself in textiles: Jan Beaney, Sue Hotchkis and
Alice Kettle.
Jan
Beaney is a renowned embroiderer, teacher, author and exhibitor in the UK and
worldwide. She can employ mixed media,
paint, beading and other contemporary materials into her work as the subject
demands, but always with hand and machine embroidery as the principal
players. Like the Indigenous artists, she
finds inspiration in the landscape around her and beauty in the mundane and
everyday details. The focus of
indigenous art is often the locale and activities surrounding the artists. Their fibre sculptures may be simplified to
the point of schematic but the source of their design lies in local wildlife
and vegetation. Jan may not be using
tangible vegetation in her work but her design sources lie similarly close at
hand.
Over
recent years she has used a water-soluble material on which to stitch, connecting
fragments such as fabric scraps and wool roving through hand and machine stitch. Once the fabric is washed away a complete new
“cloth” remains on which further stitching can be done. This is clearly a situation where stitch is
both functional to the created cloth and decorative. The combination of hand and free machine
stitch gives a wonderful texture and depth to the work. Hand embroidery in various weights of thread
and wool, and in different type and size gives tremendous detail in layers of stitching. Free machine embroidery then integrates and
embeds the stitches, blending colour and its movement within the piece.
Whether
her work is densely layered (Figure 2) or translucent to the point of extreme fragility
(Figure 3), the compositional thought involved and skilled execution is always
there and entices one to look ever closer.
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| Figure 2: New Life (2008) Jan Beaney, private collection |
Figure 3: Skala Eressos – Early Evening (2009) Jan
Beaney from scan of postcard
I love
the way Jan blends and layers large bold hand stitches in thick wools with
fragments of scrim material and wool roving (Figures 4 and 5). It appears too great a contrast up close but
simply gives enough texture interest when one steps back. I have learned from this to continually stop
and view ones work from a distance.
Fresh eyes from a different perspective are the key to self-critiquing.
.
Figure 4: New Life detail
Figure 5: New Life detail
It is the
wish to entice the audience to look closer that I also endeavour to reach, and
therefore it is not surprising that her use of hand and machine embroidery has
been influential in my work. In Lichen, I sought to bring detail and
texture to dimensional nunofelting with significant hand embroidery in
different weights of wool and pearlised cotton (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Lichen detail (2016) Helen MacRitchie
In
researching Lichen I came across a
recent textile of the same name by Sue Hotchkis, a UK artist now living in
Guernsey. I had seen glimpses of her
work over the last few years, glimpses of amazing layered texture, freely
embroidered but only this year had the opportunity to discuss her work with her,
first hand, while she was solo exhibiting in Fragments in Australia.
She
too is drawn visually to the details of living, drawn to photograph the torn
posters, the rust and wear, the detritus of modern life. She sees beauty in the
detail that is often missed on first glance.
Her inspiration and subject
matter may be far from exciting in name but once they abstractly transform into
such jewelled fragments of stitched detail, they come alive.
She
employs digital printing, screen printing, paper lamination, trapunto, free
machine embroidery to name but a few contemporary techniques, building and disintegrating
layers and fragments (as her exhibition was so aptly named) into detailed sculptural
hangings (Figures 7 and 8)
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| Figure 7: Door detail Sue Hotchkis |
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| Figure 8: Fifty-two detail Sue Hotchkis |
Her stitching is functional, combining layers and fragments into a cohesive hanging, but of course it is also highly decorative. Without her extensive embroidery much surface detail and sculptural manipulation would be lost and the fragment cohesion diminished.
She
describes her stitching process as meditative. She becomes almost lost in the rhythm
of machine stitching, merging fragments and creating texture, reminding me of
the repetitive weaving involved in Indigenous fibre art. Such dedication to the process is apparent;
never invisible to the close examiner. I
also see the employment of new technologies such as digital printing which are
at hand to the contemporary textile artist, an extension to the materials at
hand to the Indigenous artist. The
techniques may have changed but the opportunistic approach to available
resources has not. I love her striking
use of colour, particularly her combinations of complementary colours as in Verdigris (Figure 9), and the tonal
variations within pieces, such as Embrace
(Figures 10 and 11), giving them
real depth.
 |
| Figure 9: Verdigris detail Sue Hotchkis |
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| Figure 10: Embrace detail Sue Hotchkis |
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| Figure 11: Embrace Sue Hotchkis |
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| Figure 12: Loedhas Helen MacRitchie |
Another
UK textile artist who has found her own medium in which to express her art
practice is Alice Kettle. Alice is
currently Professor in Textile Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University
having studied fine art as an undergraduate working in abstract expressionism,
and then pursuing textile art as a postgraduate. She has established a unique position in the
fibre arts field creating heavily stitched wall hangings, using extensive free
machine embroidery and layering threads of different weights and thicknesses on
a cloth background. She often chooses
as inspiring subject matter, historical characters and tales, mythological
stories, and figurative representations.
In her pictorial pieces, there is rarely a literal connection to her
theme, more often a symbolic one. This
is reminiscent of the markings found in Indigenous art e.g. circles representing
homesteads or gatherings, meandering lines as rivers, movement or animals. Their
culturally important people and story creatures are represented symbolically in
their fibre sculptures. In Alice
Kyteler (Figure 13) the central figure may indeed be the old woman of that
name but Alice gives her a sense of regal majesty inferring her power and
strength of character through the adornment of her skirt in textile ephemera and
her compositional placing in lightness with metallic threads.
Figure 13: Alice
Kyteler Alice Kettle, photo taken from www.alicekettle.com
I
briefly studied Alice in a previous module of diploma work, but since then I
have examined some of her commissioned installations more closely and had the
opportunity to hear her speak in conference about her work. I did not fully appreciate before her
painterly approach to her work. She expresses her love of the physical nature
of paint, the gestural nature of mark making, and her desire to translate her
fingerprint in painting into textiles.
She layers threads in her stitching to convey the fluidity of painting
strokes, playing with threads of different colour, thickness and shine. Different qualities in light reflection are
achieved by layering glossy and matt threads, which let the viewer “go into”
the surface of the threads. She tries to
“float” a matt thread over areas of metallic to give depth and alter the light
resonance between threads. I am
fortunate enough to own a textile Daniel
and the Lioness (Figure 14), by
Alice Kettle, and can appreciate this effect at first hand – aspects of the
surface appear differently coloured and reflected as you move past in different
light.
Figure 14: Daniel and the Lioness Alice Kettle, private collection
Threads
are layered in different directions (Figure 15), some stitches tiny others
huge, whipstitching colours from beneath appear (Figure 16), and loops of
thread jump off the surface (Figures 17 and 18).
Figure 15: Daniel and the Lioness detail 1 Alice
Kettle
Figure 16: Daniel and the Lioness detail 2 Alice
Kettle
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| Figure 17: Daniel and the Lioness detail 3 Alice Kettle |
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| Figure 18: Daniel and the Lioness detail 4 Alice Kettle |
The
fascinating detail is there on close examination but the joy is apparent when
you step back. It then becomes less
about the individual stitches and more about the movement and light conveyed
across the whole textile. It could be
said that each stitch is decorative but I feel they are not to be admired in
isolation – rather they exist ‘en masse’, creating a fluidity of colour and gesture
true to Alice Kettle. In that sense they
are indeed functional, and successful in achieving that goal.
Mark
making through stitch takes many forms: functional and decorative. My study of
these three artists for whom mark making has great affinity, has shown me that be it in the creation of soft textural
colour blends, the effect of abstract paint strokes, or organic sculptural
detail, stitched textiles are a feast for the eyes and an inspiration to us
all.
Helen MacRitchie 2016
All
photographs are my own except where noted.
*APY:
Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunyjatjara
References:
Jan
Beaney and Jean Littlejohn (2010) Stitchscapes,
published by Double-Trouble, UK
Jan
Beaney and Jean Littlejohn (1998) Stitch
Magic: Ideas and Interpretation, published by Batsford, UK
BeCreative with Workbox magazine (2015), May/June
Embellish
magazine (2016) Vol
25 March
Embroidery magazine (2016), Jan/Feb
issue, Craft, Credo & Collaboraton,
pp28-33
Carol
Shinn (2009), Freestyle Machine
Embroidery, published by Interweave Press USA
Diana
Springall (2005) Inspired to Stitch,
published by A&C Black Publishers, UK
www.alicekettle.co.uk/exhibitions/narrative-line/
www.suehotchkis.com
www.textileartist.org/alice-kettle-reinvent-rework-reconstruct/
www.textileartist.org/jan-beaney-and-jean-littlejohn-interview
www.textileartist.org/susan-hotchkis-conception-creation/
www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/i/interview-alice-kettle-embroiderer/
