Category: The Blog

ROOTS exhibition has launched in Dublin Castle

The project we have worked on for more than sixteen months has finally been launched into the world and now it must stand on its own. We are very proud and happy with the way ROOTS, an exhibition of textile and multi media artworks, has come together in the wonderful gallery space of The Coach House, Dublin Castle. It is early days but, so far, the reaction from visitors has been uniquely responsive to the words of the poet, the artists written words and the artworks themselves.

We were honoured to have Maureen Kennelly, Director, The Arts Council, perform the opening ceremony on Thursday, 3rd October. She spoke of the importance of collaborations between artists … “The thing I love most about the role that I have is observing connections between artists. How something new and miraculous and magical can be made by artistic collaboration and this evening you have the perfect example of it.”

The works in this exhibition all come from the heart and from the deep well of memory and emotion that Jane Clarke’s writing drew forth in us. Whilst dealing with the everyday acts of living life, her poetry has the ability to touch us all in subtle, tender ways. We hope you get a chance to experience it yourself.

ROOTS, a dialogue in textile and poetry

The countdown is on. Sixteen months of work is coming to fruition. From 23rd September 2024 we will start to hang an exhibition of artworks created in response to the poetry of Irish poet, Jane Clarke, in The Coach House, Dublin Castle. The exhibition will be open to the public from 26th September and our official launch will be in early October.

This is such an exciting time for us as a collective. We have lived with the emotions and memories evoked by Jane’s poems for many months and we have taken them to our hearts. We each chose a poem, or a number of poems to respond to, creating unique artworks using different techniques, which reflect her words and the personal memories those words brought to the surface in each artist. Confronting the personal memories that were dredged up for each artist was not always an easy process, but we feel privileged to be able to have the ability to express the personal in artworks that may speak to us all.

Thank you to the OPW for granting us an exhibition space as wonderful as The Coach House, Dublin Castle and the staff at Dublin Castle for their help and cooperation. We especially thank, Jane Clarke for trusting us to give visual expression to her quiet, powerful words.

Thanks also to Kildare County Council for grant funding under the Arts Act and to Niamh in Inniscara Bespoke Framing, Co. Kildare who has worked with us in devising a cohesive framing plan for our diverse artworks.

More images and information will follow as we put the products of our emotions and Jane Clarke’s words on the white walls of the Kane Room, Dublin Castle.

Credit: Image used in our poster: ‘Final Moments‘ Pauline Kiernan.

Textile and Poetry in Dialogue

For the past year and a half, we have been quietly working on a really interesting project. You may have seen images of some pieces of work in progress on our Instagram account.

In January 2023, we were introduced to the very distinctive voice of Irish poet, Jane Clarke, and began a dialogue between her poetry and our contemporary textile art practice.

We were drawn to the imagery of her poems which explore how people, landscape and culture shape us. During these past months we have lived with the emotions and memories that the poems evoke. Jane’s poetry is rooted in rural life, but she is not afraid to tackle contemporary issues, expose intense personal emotions of family, relationships, love and loss.

Print, drawing and stitch on paper by Sally Hewetson

Works on paper, Sally Hewetson

The journey with Jane’s poetry has led us to delve into our own life experiences, our sorrows and joys and has prompted the creation of nearly 50 pieces of artwork. As a project it has allowed us take a contemplative, slow approach to responding to the poetry. We had time to experiment, to try out different materials and techniques to find the best way to express our visual response to the written word.

Rust dying and stitch on organza by Kathrina Hughes

Rust dye, stitch on cotton organdie, Kathrina Hughes

During conversations with Jane, we discovered a lot of commonalities in our process of creating – time spent thinking and living with ideas before they form words on paper or images on textile. Textile has long been a vehicle for storytelling. Personal stories of lived experience and moments of everyday life patched and stitched together. Contemporary textiles continue the lineage but move to more abstract forms of expression.

We will show this body of work, alongside the poems that inspired it, in a major exhibition opening at the beginning of October. More details next month. We hope you can join us then to see the culmination of our journey with the wonderful poetry of Jane Clarke.

We are very grateful for the support we have received from the Office of Public Works, Kildare Arts Service @arts_in_co_kildare, Jane Clarke (www.janeclarkepoetry.ie) and Jane’s publisher, Bloodaxe Books @bloodaxebooks.

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Missing in (in)action

Apologies for the lack of contact – it has been a long time since we posted to the blog. We took a break from meeting as a group for the summer and are now back together again to work on our next project. And what an interesting project it is ….. but I can’t reveal all, just yet. The culmination will be an exhibition in the Coach House, Dublin Castle, next September….. a wonderful location to show work. Thanks to the OPW for giving us the opportunity.

We have started to sketch out ideas in our notebooks and to do sampling of possibilities or techniques that might eventually lead to a finished piece or evolve into a finished artwork …. here are some images from our September get-together. Well done to those who have already created such interesting textures and patterns – some of us need to catch up! More updates soon.

Soya Milk and Pigment to colour cloth.

Recently we were treated to a taster workshop on using soya milk and natural pigments to colour cloth. Colleen had attended a full workshop during the summer with textile artist, Claire Benn in the UK and was willing to share her knowledge with us. The sharing of skills and techniques within our group is an important part of being a collective. It takes the mystery out of something that can seem daunting and allows further exploration within a structured course if the process appeals to one. Dying of cloth can involve many chemicals and solvents that are not good for the environment so it was great to sample a method that is more environmentally friendly.

Using soya milk as a binder for the pigment is a cheap and ecological alternative to using acrylic binders. Soya bean is rich in protein which has adhesive like qualities and, when made into a milk, it bonds with the fibres of the cloth. To make the milk you soak the soya beans overnight and then blend into a milk.

This method is suitable for use on natural fibres, both cellulose (linen, cotton, viscose/rayon) and protein fibres such as silk and wool. The fabric must be scoured before use to remove the size or dressing used in the manufacturing process.

As you can see from the images we were really just playing with the process and the pigments. I don’t have any final images to show as the cloth has to be left to cure for four weeks before it can be ironed and used.

I have just outlined the basics of the process here but there is a lot more detail you will need if you are to try it yourself. Fiber Arts Take Two are releasing an online workshop in March 2023 called ‘Out of This Earth’ with Claire Benn, if anyone is interested in learning more. You can sign up to get notified of their courses and they have wonderful interviews with textile artists around the world and are a great source of information on textile art. www.fibreartstaketwo.com. Claire Benn is a textile artist, author and teacher who is passionate about landscape and the environment and you can see her work or sign up to her blog on her website. https://www.clairebenn.com.