Tag: Irish textile artists

Artist Focus: Caroline Fitzgerald

It is estimated that Ireland has over 400,000 km of dry stone walls, many standing today were built during the famine. The earliest examples are the Ceide Fields in Co. Mayo which were built approximately 5,800 years ago. Built to clear fertile fields of stone, the walls form barriers but also protections, safe enclosures offering security. Dry stone walls feature twice in element15’s exhibition, ROOTS, inspired by two separate poems by Jane Clarke. Artist, Caroline Fitzgerald has a long standing love of these iconic symbols of rural Ireland and is constantly photographing them, the different sized stone, the shapes and patterns they make, the spaces in between. Hence it is not a surprise that she was drawn to respond to ‘Spalls‘, a poem which weaves many threads of family love into the building of a garden and a dry stone wall.

The poem speaks to the practical love that the poet’s parents demonstrated by driving from Roscommon to help her form a garden in her new home in Wicklow, even though they would have preferred that her relationship was with a man, and not a woman. Armed with tools, seedlings and buckets of compost they would set to work, sharing their knowledge and experience.

…My father took off on his own
to spud ragwort or clip a hedge.
One day he spent hours gathering
stones of different shapes and sizes.
By evening he’d built us a wall
under the holly, held together
by gravity and friction,
hearted with handfuls of spalls.

Spalls, Jane Clarke

Spalls is not a word we hear very often. The definition is ‘a fragment broken off the edge or face of stone, and having at least one thin edge’. These fragments, not much use on first appearance, form an integral part of the wall building process. Caroline sees the construction of the wall in the poem as a metaphor for the work we must put into relationships to make them strong and sustainable. Family relationships are built on a solid foundation of love, acceptance, trust and respect. The wall is ‘hearted’ with the small acts of love that tie the family together.

That unconditional love reminds Caroline of her own parents when they would come to visit her new family home. Her father would set about fixing or mending something – he was a doer, he loved nothing more than to be given a challenge, an amateur carpenter, plumber or painter. He showed his love in practical ways. The poem is all the more poignant for Caroline since her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease four years ago and she is loosing him bit by bit. It is a disease that steals a person’s essential sense of self, robbing them and their loved ones of their connections to one another. The poem “Spalls” connected Caroline to her father and his love for her and her family.

Caroline’s artwork, titled ‘Families’, consists of two pieces. A wall mounted, framed image of a stone wall digitally printed on georgette fabric and a floating panel of georgette, printed with an enlarged section of the same wall. The panel has been stitched with silk and cotton thread, highlighting the spaces between the stones, the spaces ‘hearted with handfuls of spalls‘.

Jane Clarke’s poems have the ability to reach into our hearts, to jolt the connections and memories back to life as they reference the everyday tasks of living, loving and dying.

Thanks to Caroline for sharing her very personal thoughts on ‘Families’. Thank you to Jane Clarke for her collaboration and to her publisher, Bloodaxe Books, for permission to use her poems. Thanks also to the OPW for the opportunity to exhibit and Kildare County Council for funding through the Arts Act Grant.

Some of Jane’s books are now available in the gift shop in Chester Beatty Library next to the Coach House

Artist Focus: Rina Whyte

Teabags, a staple in most Irish households, a signifier of welcome, hospitality and warmth. In her collection of pieces for this exhibition, artist Rina Whyte used teabags, stitched together to form a base on which to print and stitch. The work was inspired by Jane Clarke’s poem, Eggs, which begins with the lines:

I'd have followed her anywhere
but my grandmother rarely went further 
than the yard, tending her hens.

The words resonated with Rina because of the her connection with her own grandmother. Rina views the humble egg as a symbol of the female connection and bond, the passing down of knowledge as well as bloodline. The possibility of life symbolised in an egg is passed from grandmother to daughter and granddaughter. The guardians of that life possibility – mothers, daughters, granddaughters and, of course, chickens!

The story in the poem, the connections between eggs, grandmothers, kitchen tables and hens all rolled together for Rina to a memory of her grandmother providing her with her first cup of tea – hence the tea bags!

There are some artists whose notebooks are works of art in themselves – and Rina is one of them. She spends many hours doing sketches and samples in notebooks in preparation for each project she undertakes. These artist notebooks are frequently displayed in exhibitions as it gives an insight into the thought process of the artists and the journey the work has taken from an idea to reality. In this instance we did not have the space to display it but here is a glimpse of two pages from her notebook:

Rina took the task of salvaging used tea bags from cups and mugs very seriously, with many a frantic shout to unsuspecting family and friends not to throw out the tea bag! The process of preparing them was a slow meditative one – gently cutting them open, emptying the contents and hanging the paper to dry. There was joy in seeing the patterns that remained when the empty bag had dried out – each one a record of a quiet moment in time or an animated conversation. Kitchen tables and tea are so symbolic and embedded in Irish life.

And, of course, eggs don’t exist without chickens. Rina had fun drawing the hen motif which features throughout the work, a shape “so simple even a child could have created it” and used the gelli plate printing method to print onto the stitched teabag ‘fabric’. The ‘cantankerous cockerel‘, featured in the poem, also made an appearance.

Free machine embroidery was used to create a collection of chickens and cockerels who feature on an accordion fold book, moving, gathering, pecking, focusing on their needs. Rina spent time watching and drawing the movements of a flock of hens as they scratched, sought grubs and crumbs until they eventually returned to their nest boxes.

This gathering of work is displayed in a diverse way – some pieces are attached to chicken wire (what else!), some are beautifully framed, some stitched into a book form, and some are just scattered printed teabags in a display case. In all its variety it makes a pleasing and unique assemblage.

One of the framed pieces in this collection, Coop Eggs III, has been sold.

Thanks to Rina for sharing her notebook with us and the inspiration for the work. Thank you to Jane Clarke for her collaboration and to her publisher, Bloodaxe Books, for permission to use her poems. Thanks also to the OPW for the opportunity to exhibit and Kildare County Council for funding through the Arts Act Grant.

Some of Jane’s books are now available in the gift shop in Chester Beatty Library next to the Coach House.

Artist Focus: Elaine Peden

One of Elaine’s artworks, ‘willowherb’ is displayed on the title wall as you enter the exhibition, ROOTS, a dialogue in textile and poetry. It is subtle yet impactful in its dyptich form, elongated shape and colour tones. It is the perfect piece to halt the viewer in their tracks, realise on closer inspection that it is a textile artwork, and then move to read about the exhibition which is writ large on either side in Irish and in English.

‘willowherb’ is inspired by Jane Clarke’s poem of the same name. It explores the harsh reality of exiting a hospital leaving a loved one behind and facing the grey, bleak hospital car park. This is a space that Elaine has inhabited many times in the past as a nurse and more recently when her father passed away.

while you were leaving
the wind picked up

and tossed lithe stems
purple-pink flower heads

by the breeze block wall
of the hospital car park ...

willowherb, Jane Clarke

Elaine uses deadstock fabrics, in this instance an old cotton and linen tablecloth which was dyed with Procion dye and Brusho powder mixed with inks, then embroidered flowers were added. It was originally one large piece but Elaine wished to reference the two sides of the story; the person exiting the hospital and the one left behind, so she was brave enough to cut it up and form it into two pieces.

Elaine says she dreams in colour and cobalt blue is her favourite. As she read Jane’s poem ‘Stepping In’ the colour came to the forefront ‘alert, electric, alive‘ to become the base colour of her piece of the same name. As a child Elaine hated the cold water but in the past few years she has returned to the water. This poem perfectly captures the experience of river swimming, awkwardly undressing and clambering down a bank to the ‘bone-cold awakening of skin‘. Elaine believes that on land we thread in shallow waters, exposing little of ourselves to the harsh world but in cold water we can plunge deeper to connect body and inner self.

This hanging was made with wet felt technique using an array of materials: merino wool, Icelandic fibre, mulberry silk, bamboo fibre, dyed wool neps, sari silk and yarn threads. Its colours are indeed electric, alert and alive.

Placed on a low pedestal beneath, is a companion piece ‘Stepping In II‘, inspired by the line ‘lemon-mossed pebbles‘ in the same poem. Elaine believes stones have a grounding effect, their weight in her hand, no hard edges, their stillness bearing witness to their surroundings.

Elaine’s third contribution to the exhibition also references the water. Jane Clarke’s poem ‘Against the Flow’ speaks of the salmon’s journey full of perils and obstacles as it moves upstream to spawn ‘…through riffles and deeps, millraces that churn in spate…’. While creating her piece of the same name, Elaine reflects on her own past life journeys when she began ‘to swim against the current‘, forge her own path, to break free.

‘One day you knew you must turn,

begin to swim against the current,

leave the estuary waters, brackish

with sediment …’

‘Against the flow‘, Jane Clarke

This wall hanging was made using the wet felting technique, Herdwick wool fibre, dyed merino wool, Tussah silk and mulberry silk. A rivulet of text from the poem runs through it.

Thank you to Elaine for sharing her thoughts, to Jane Clarke for her collaboration and to her publisher, Bloodaxe Books, for permission to use her poems. Thanks also to the OPW for the opportunity to exhibit and Kildare County Council for funding through the Arts Act Grant.

To see these works up close and personal, visit the exhibition ROOTS, a dialogue in textile and poetry, in the Coach House Gallery, Dublin Castle. Open 7 days a week, 10 am – 5 pm, closed for lunch 1.15 – 1.45 pm. Some of Jane’s books are now available in the gift shop in Chester Beatty Library next to the Coach House.

Artist Focus: Colleen Prendiville

Colleen has created three pieces for the ROOTS exhibition, two are 3D installations and one is a wall based work. Working on these was a very emotional experience for her, triggering all sorts of memory and reflection.

‘Holding the Moment’ is an installation made with card, paper and stitched embellishment, the idea for which began to grow as Colleen absorbed the imagery in the poem ‘The Finest Specimen‘. She loved the intimate moments of family and neighbourhood history held in old letters ‘bound together with knotted string‘ as recalled in the poem. One powerful image is about how the poet’s father was ‘lonely for the fields‘ on his honeymoon. There are echoes of this in Colleen’s family as her father came from a small farm in Cavan. As the eldest son, he gave up his entitlement to the land in order to live a very different life – but he always had the Farmer’s Journal in the family home throughout his life.

Colleen’s own home holds treasured mementoes of her life over the last 35 years, including cards sent by family and friends, postcards of works by favourite artists, cards from far flung places that she has visited. In developing her piece, Colleen has used some of these with the addition of stitched embellishments – an essential element in connecting. The installation consists of nine wrapped bundles, the layers underneath as important as the visible page. The collaged pages were the most difficult and rewarding to work on, being pieces of an old address book she has had for 40 years. An everyday thing – but for Colleen it is a profound link to past phases of her life; in London, Bristol and Australia. Stitched cords echo the ‘knotted string’ from the poem and symbolise a holding and minding of memory and the people whose details have been recorded in that address book.

‘Refuge’, a wall based piece, is in response to Jane Clarke’s poem ‘Harness Room‘. The ‘room under the loft‘ is an unremarkable space replicated in countless rural dwellings around the country. Colleen read the poem as a love letter to that space, and to the peace that Jane Clarke’s father found there. The poet allows herself to be immersed in the room, exploring why she feels such affection for it, with its ‘slab stone floor, softened by layers of dirt and dust’. Jane’s use of words, turning lists of mundane objects into things of real beauty, the ‘love for the naming of things‘ showing that powerful connection.

‘Refuge’ pays homage to the beauty and power in unremarkable spaces that are so often dismissed and overlooked. Using soya milk and earth pigments on linen, the subdued tones and stillness of the room are captured.

Colleen’s third piece, ‘Gathering’ does not relate to one specific poem but is a reflection of some of the commentary on human life and living that Jane so beautifully explores across her work. …layers of a life lived, repair and renewal, bravery, tenderness, fragility of relationships, life not always going in a straight line…

The seven small pieces are formed from cotton, wool felt, paper, hand stitch and found objects. They are not always pristine and perfect which echoes the messiness of the human condition. In contrast they are beautifully presented for us to view.

Thank you to Colleen for sharing her work, to Jane Clarke for her collaboration and to her publisher, Bloodaxe Books, for permission to use her poems. Thanks also to the OPW for the opportunity to exhibit and Kildare County Council for funding through the Arts Act Grant.

Artist Focus: Pauline Kiernan

Pauline Kiernan has created a body of work inspired by Jane Clarke’s evocative imagery in “The Rod”.

He's waiting for you,
the cardiac nurse hands me
a basin of water, washcloth, towel.

The Rod, Jane Clarke

The seven pieces in this collection explore the delicate balance of life and death, highlighting the simple yet profound gestures that define our humanity. In ‘Weight of Time‘, Pauline captures the quintessential gesture of security in childhood – being able to slip a tiny hand into the big, warm and reassuring grasp of a father figure. The piece was screen printed and the background image densely machine embroidered to bring the figures in the foreground to life. Pauline is an expert with free machine embroidery and employs it with ease to make dense backgrounds or delicate line drawings.

A similar motif is repeated in ‘Final Moments‘ a triptych of screen printed and patched textiles, overworked with machine embroidery and kantha style hand stitching. A stitched image of Pauline’s father wearing jacket and tie recalls his once strong frame whilst the text hints at a different story. In the quiet stillness of a Sunday morning, Pauline found herself doing something she never expected, shaving her father’s face. His illness had left him frail and his skin had become delicate and paper thin. For her this simple act wasn’t just an act of care; it was a ritual of love, full of tenderness, each movement careful and deliberate, almost sacred.

Pauline has always been drawn to themes of family, memory and place in her work as a textile artist. Cloth is particularly suitable for creating artworks that have deep connections to our personal histories and it becomes even more relevant when the fabric we use has been part of our family story. In ‘Fragments‘ Pauline used pieces of vintage clothing as the substrate on which to stitch images of her father, his glasses and the shaving ritual. In the exhibition these cloth fragments hang on specimen pins casting shadows on the surrounding space and seemingly poised to fall away at any time.

Pauline’s final piece in this collection “Fragments II” further develops the child/parent motif in a beautifully crafted man’s shirt and child’s dress. The organdie fabric has been screen printed, white on white, with personal motifs barely visible on the garments, which recall her father’s life and his illness. The two pieces are hung free from the wall, connected but floating apart.

Perhaps because textile as an art medium has often been disregarded by the art world, women have, for centuries, quietly used cloth and stitch as a vehicle for expressing political resistance, calls to action as well as recording personal stories, moments of trauma and everyday life. Pauline runs workshops in her studio where she aims to create a space for people to connect with their own experiences and memories and translate them onto fabric. Pauline says, “In the end, this isn’t just about creating a piece of art, it’s about capturing those simple powerful moments of connection that remind us of what it means to care for each other. This is what I want my art to represent.”

Thank you to Pauline for sharing her work, to Jane Clarke for her collaboration and to her publisher, Bloodaxe Books, for permission to use her poems. Thanks also to the OPW for the opportunity to exhibit and Kildare County Council for funding through the Arts Act Grant. To see these works up close and personal, visit the exhibition ROOTS, a dialogue in textile and poetry, in the Coach House Gallery, Dublin Castle. Open 7 days a week, 10 am – 5 pm, closed for lunch 1.15 – 1.45 pm. Some of Jane’s books are now available in the gift shop in Chester Beatty Library next to the Coach House.