Exhibition anxiety, worthyness and words

Green & Blue Series 

 

Life has been bus.  My colleagues and I (RE-create Collective) are at the pointy end of our exhibition From Where I Sit – Stories from within which will be launched at the Albury Library Museum on 25 June, 2020.

Super excited and over it all at the same time!

I have prepared a series of textile works and have been umming and ahing about whether to submit them. Exhibition anxierty.  Are they worthy? I have decided to offer them up for the exhibition and let the Albury Library Museum make the curatorial decision.   

The works are an interpretation of a poem by Lesbia Harford which I wanted to do for some time:

            Green and blue
            First-named of colours believe these two.
            They first of colours by men were seen
            This grass colour, tree colour,
            Sky colour, sea colour,
            Magic-named, mystic-souled, blue and green.
            Later came
            Small subtle colours like tongues of flame,
            Small jewel colours for treasure trove,
            Not fruit colour, flower colour,
            Cloud colour, shower colour,
            But purple, amethyst, violet and mauve.
            These remain,
            Two broad fair colours for our larger gain
            Stretched underfoot or spreading wide on high,
            Green beech colour, vine colour,
            Gum colour, pine colour,

            Blue of the noonday and the moonlit sky.

Why did I change my mind?   Because when I sit at my table and gaze out the window I see green and blue.  When I rest in my garden I see green and blue.   These colours are restful and calming and often observed whilst sitting and pondering. My artists statement will reflect this.

Translating text to textiles

Green Lovers - Marc Chagall 

                    Green and blue 

                    First-named of colours believe these two. 

                    They first of colours by men were seen 

                    This grass colour, tree colour, 

                    Sky colour, sea colour, 

                    Magic-named, mystic-souled, blue and green.

                    Later came 

                    Small subtle colours like tongues of flame, 

                    Small jewel colours for treasure trove, 

                    Not fruit colour, flower colour, 

                    Cloud colour, shower colour, 

                    But purple, amethyst, violet and mauve. 

                    These remain, 

                    Two broad fair colours for our larger gain

                    Stretched underfoot or spreading wide on high, 

                    Green beech colour, vine colour, 

                    Gum colour, pine colour,

                    Blue of the noonday and the moonlit sky. 

I’ve been thinking about how to interpret this poem by Lesbia Harford in a textile format. 

The words have the same effect on my brain that the feel of textiles has in my hands.

Can words be tactile? 

Palpable. A synonym of tactile: a feeling or atmosphere so intense as to seem almost tangible. 

I’ve been exploring artists too. 

Modernist Marc Chagall uses a lot of blue and green and interesting vistas and skies.  (The Tate has a great teachers pack for an introduction and a little self-directed learning.) 

A further poke around the Tate online brought me back to Wassily Kandinsky and his inspiring use of colour and line. 

 Circles in Squares - Wassily Kandinsky

I’ve been pondering on how to express this poem in fabric and stitch for a fair while now. I have silk sari strips and threads. A few days ago I found some interesting wire frames tucked away in the garage. They may be just the thing to help create a work that is either flat of 3D – or both?