joseph scissorhands: Stitched

Thursday, 21 July 2022

Stitched

Joana Vasconcelos - Haendel, 2020, (detail)

I adored this small but beautifully curated survey of artists who employ the use of stitch and other textile techniques in their work. As an artist who also uses stitch I found this exhibition especially pertinent and inspirational. The sixteen artists involved have used various approaches with thread to produce a diverse range of outcomes that question the notions of fine art and craft. I was aware of the work of most of the artists on display but this exhibition threw up a couple of new names for me to investigate. There were favourites such as Do Ho Suh with Bathtub, Apartment A, 348 West 22nd Street, New York, NY10011, USA, an amazing soft sculpture from his celebrated 'Specimens' series, which occupy physical space like diaphanous, ghostly apparitions. It was a delight to see pieces by Sheila Hicks and Lenore Tawney who have both had wonderful shows across town at Alison Jacques Gallery here, and here, within the last year so seeing their work again so soon was like greeting familiar friends. Another delight was experiencing a rare pierced and stringed Henry Moore sculpture that I had never seen before. The strong contrast of the vivid yellow thread strung through the Africanesque carved wood form was most satisfying. I was impressed with the humour and quirkiness of Nina Katchadourian's 'Mended Spiderwebs' series in which she searched for damaged spiderwebs in local woodlands and actually mended them with thread and glue. Funnily enough when Katchadourian returned to the webs she found that the spiders had rejected her repairs, discarding the red threads on the woodland floor, and had repaired the webs themselves, preferring their own spinning skills, or created completely new webs. One of the most striking artworks on display here was Joana Vasconcelos's wall-mounted Haendel, an intricately crochet covered lizard. Vasconcelos commissioned renowned ceramics firm Bordallo Pinhiero to create the lizard from a series of readymade designs, and local artisans to create the intricate, decorative crochet-work covering on the surface. The effect produces a surreally beautiful piece. This exhibition is the first in a series in which Ordovas will explore different techniques in modern and contemporary art.