Tag Archives: Bethany Walker

Tacit exhibition

Posted in career, Exhibitions, My work by

Tacit – Made in Leicestershire contemporary craft exhibition at LCB Depot 17th-29th September.

My first co-curated contemporary craft exhibition is now open! On Friday I installed Tacit – Made in Leicestershire exhibition at LCB Depot in Leicester. I am working for Creative Leicestershire as a consultant on the Made in Leicestershire brand development and putting together this exhibition and events programme is part of that process. It has been a delight to work with so many brilliant Leicestershire makers and to discover new ones selected by co-curator Jo Keogh. The exhibition is only up for a short time until 29th September with a couple of events next week for makers and for visitors to meet the makers.

Exhibition details here along with studio shots of the makers’ work. Late evening preview event is on Facebook. Leicestershire-based professional artists and makers are invited to a Makers Gathering on Thursday 27th Sept hosted by me for Made in Leicestershire.

This show includes my Tracery hanging and my Interlace collaboration work Halo.

I’ve installed two exhibitions in the space of 10 days so my tool box is well-used and I’m all out of cup hooks and glass cleaner. In my previous career I curated and developed museum exhibitions and have worked on a lot of craft exhibitions too over the years. I really enjoy this kind of work, though having help with the ladders, drilling and lifting from LCB staff was great – I’ve had to go up scaffolding to install things before and it wasn’t my favourite thing. Tacit has been an interesting, if very rushed, project to work on. The exhibition concept was developed by LCB Depot in the summer and they asked me to select makers and sort out installation. Jo Keogh (one of the artists) also found a group of emerging makers with new work I didn’t know about so the exhibition is really varied. I really enjoy mixed material exhibitions more than single material – I love to see my work alongside ceramics, glass and metals rather than just textile. It gives all the work a new perspective.

Interlace collaboration

Posted in Collaborations, Exhibitions, Interlace by

My collaboration Interlace with Bethany Walker is going from strength to strength!

In 2016 we ran Urban Growth an exciting community project with 8-13 year olds to create a permanent piece of concrete and cloth outdoor work of art in Leicester. This project was funded by the Joyce Carr Doughty Trust.

Over the Spring and Summer we were pleased to be showing at Jennifer Collier’s contemporary craft gallery Unit Twelve in an exhibition of collaborations. I was also showing my work with Jan Garside. 

 

 

We followed this with exhibiting at all three Knitting & Stitching Shows in London, Dublin and Harrogate which was a great success. Our popular Spectrum piece grew from 27 bowls to 45.

 

2016 was rounded off really well with Made in the Middle. Early in the year we were delighted to be selected for this high-quality and well-respected touring exhibition. Our new piece HALO, our largest to date (4m wide) was awarded a prize at the opening night of the show in December.

Made in the Middle continues at The Herbert Museum & Art Gallery until 19th February and then tours throughout 2017 & 18.

Urban Growth Project Launch

Posted in Collaborations, Exhibitions, Interlace by

My collaboration project Interlace was recently commissioned to create a new public artwork with young people in Leicester.

Bethany and I worked with 8-13 year olds in January and February this year to design and make a set of concrete and cloth tiles inspired by the urban environment to be displayed at Makers’ Yard studios in Leicester. We are launching and celebrating the project on Tuesday 7th June and all are welcome to join us.

 

Launch poster

 

 

Interlace

Posted in Art Textiles, Collaborations, Exhibitions, My work by

This weekend sees the launch of an exciting new project which I have been working on for over a year. Bethany Walker and I have created Interlace, a collaboration of cloth and concrete.

Interlace by Ruth Singer & Bethany Walker
Interlace :: Ruth Singer & Bethany Walker
Interlace :: Ruth Singer & Bethany Walker
Interlace by Ruth Singer & Bethany Walker
Interlace by Ruth Singer & Bethany Walker
Interlace :: Ruth Singer & Bethany Walker
Interlace by Ruth Singer & Bethany Walker

Our showcase exhibition opens on Saturday 21st March upstairs at Bilston Craft Gallery and runs until 19th April. The exhibition includes two large scale wall installations as well as different displays of the concrete & cloth bowls.

 

Daily Make (7)

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I’ve recently been having a great time experimenting with screen printing, which I’ve not done since school! I’ve been printing on fabrics to make into more petals for Interlace, my collaboration with Bethany Walker. Our exhibition opens in less than 4 weeks time so there is lots to do….

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Lovely leafy screenprint #dailymake2015

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Almost at the end. #knitting #dailymake2015

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Along with grey petals, I’m also celebrating the nicer shades of grey on Instagram with the hashtag #50niceshadesofgrey. I’m posting pictures of lovely grey things, when I remember.

There have also been some blues. Made on Monday, when I was really feeling blue. It didn’t last.

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Monday blues #dailymake2015

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Week 7 has mostly involved visiting exhibitions, taking down exhibitions and preparing exhibitions, which isn’t so bad. But there *must* be more needle and thread in the next few weeks.

 

 

Daily Make (5 & 6)

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My excuse for missing an entire week of #dailymake2015 was my birthday last weekend. I made a dress for my birthday party and did a lot of work on petals for Interlace as our exhibition deadline looms ever closer! I’ve also got back into knitting which is a joy.

Some of the last couple of week’s makes:

 

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Smocking ready for release!

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Working in blues today. Very unusual for me. #dailymake2015

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Interlace on show in Craft and Conflict at Bilston Craft Gallery

Posted in Collaborations, Exhibitions, History, My work by

Work by Interlace is on show in Craft and Conflict at Bilston Craft Gallery until 22nd November 2014.

 

Interlace by Ruth Singer & Bethany Walker

Interlace by Ruth Singer & Bethany Walker

We created work specifically for this show, using white petals instead of our usual colours. By creating fragile textile forms fixed into concrete, we explore making the ephemeral permanent and preserving memories set in stone. The mass of petals in the work represent the fragile mass of humanity lost in conflict, while the softness of textile next to the rigidity of concrete echoes the brutality of war. The petals are hand embroidered in red wool thread. The bowls are presented in a wreath-like shape.

 

Interlace by Ruth Singer & Bethany Walker
Interlace by Ruth Singer & Bethany Walker
Interlace by Ruth Singer & Bethany Walker

 

The rest of the exhibition is thought-provoking and fascinating. There are some very interesting interpretations of the theme of craft and conflict, some beautiful, haunting works, many referencing recent and current conflicts. Alongside craft pieces there are objects made in Bilston and the Black Country for both world wars as well as personal and commemorative items. It is a considered and thoughtful combination of objects mass produced in times of war, celebrating the skill of the makers and the industry as well as craft pieces created in remembrance, in horror and with hope. I loved it.

 

Collaboration with Bethany Walker: work in progress

Posted in Collaborations, Fabric Manipulation, My work by

I’ve long been fascinated by Bethany’s combination of textiles and cement; the contrasting soft and hard materials, the transformation of cloth from malleable to solid objects and the potential her innovative techniques would hold for my kind of manipulated textiles.

Last year I applied to a-n’s collaboration bursary to fund our travel and expenses to develop a collaboration and we started working together in January 2014.

Our aim is to create work suitable for public art commissions, large-scale installations and projects. I wanted to explore Bethany’s techniques and she wanted to look at more organic forms, moving away from her usual square-format.

We started by simply setting a whole series of my textile and paper samples into cement to see how they worked and then moved on to making specific samples to test based on what worked best and looked most interesting.

 

Plenty was simply scrapped as uninteresting, or not sufficiently exciting to stand out. I wanted to make sure what I made was sufficiently different to Bethany’s existing work too. A new set of samples worked much better and gave us new avenues to explore.


At this stage I was struggling to find a theme which worked for me, beyond simply exploring interesting shapes. Our discussions lead to the idea of growth and renewal and eventually to mould, lichen, moss and fungus. We also worked on colour palettes; looking for something that contrasted well with the grey of the cement but would also work with my quite subtle-coloured work. We used Pinterest to share ideas, much like I did with my collaboration with Alys Power. Our palette became delicate pink. Bethany continued to work on new shapes and forms while I experimented with fungus-inspired growths made in textile using fabrics I dyed with elderberry.

Their success was limited but other pieces definitely worked and we have finally hit upon the perfect combination of form, textile structure, colour-palette, type of fabric and display concept which we are really happy with.

mosaic

The finished work is a series of smaller pieces; potentially a lot of small pieces, so we are busy making more and more. Our aim is to exhibit the work in 2015 and use it as a basis for joint application for projects and commissions.