Textile Traces: personal stories in cloth
Solo exhibition 2019 at Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre. 25th May – 21st July 2019
NOW CLOSED
This exhibition brings together my work exploring human experience expressed through thoughtful and emotionally-engaged textile making. The subtle and delicate work references loss, memory, fragility and damage in both the cloth itself and in our personal lives. My background as a textile historian and museum curator is woven through this work; I creates pieces with a sense of history and a look of antiques but with a powerful contemporary story.
I am intrigued by the way objects, particularly textiles, embody personal and emotional stories and also in exploring how we feel about domestic cloth and the making of textiles. Research is fundamental to my creative process and all my work is developed from a narrative, a personal or emotional starting point, a residency theme or in direct response to the passage of time shown in historical objects or places.
My work is often as much about the process of making as the finished product itself. Working by hand, using traditional, slow techniques such as patchwork or hand embroidery connects me to the past and is also meditative and meaningful, which is important when so much of my work embodies strong emotions. Antique or previously used cloth adds further depth to the work as it is infused with layers of history, use, damage or meaning.
This exhibition brings together work created since 2009 responding to museum collections, residencies and the complex experience of life.
Individual pieces or groups of work in the exhibition include:
Ruth Singer 