Hello all!
I would like to talk to you about an exhibition I have been to recently: another one, I hear you say, this girl is always going around!
I wish it were even more so, but yes, I am quite glad to have had the chance to go to a few exhibitions in the past months, as I am a strong believer of being inspired by other artists’ works and I am living in a city that has quite a lot to offer in terms of the arts scene, so why not offering a taste of this experience to you!
This exhibition was ‘Flowers’ at the Saatchi Gallery in London, United Kingdom, and it was about, what else, flowers in Contemporary art (also art inspired by flowers in ancient and past artists’ works!) and who does not love a bit of flowers in their art? I liked this one very much, as I love flowers and there was a bit more attention to textiles than in other exhibitions, though the very bulk of artworks were either oils or photos. Actually, it was fairly big and there was really plenty to see, so I am not complaining.
The works were split up into sections around common themes related to flowers, for instance still-life of flowers or flowers in connection to Medicine or flowers in connection to Science (Maths linked to flowers/plants, Technology inspired by flowers..) or Fashion inspired by flowers or Film posters with a flower theme, and so on.
Sophie Mess’s mural and canvas greeted us as the first paintings in the exhibition: hypertrophic overexpressive and non-apologetic blooms in spray paint that set a general mood of riotous flowery abundance.
One of the first sections in the exhibition was about still life takes on the flower theme, as a Roots topic for the whole theme…see what they have done here, oh oh, root-plant. Obviously with a twist: here we have Amy Sheldon’s work with pressed flowers arranged in a pattern by the artist on led lighted board. It is a still life, in a sense, but exploding the concept with the arrangement. and the use of real flowers.
A few paintings by old Masters were present in this room:
Among other serious paintings, I loved the quirkiest ones, such as this, showing that you can make art with anything at hand:
Actually, that is not a one-off artwork on the back of an envelope: Margaret Mellis was an English artist who explored mixed media and collage quite extensively in her long life (died aged 95), and she produced many more artworks on the back of envelopes! Well, why not, waste not want not, as they say. (She apparently loved beach combing to pick materials for sculptures as well.)
This modified photo by Mari Mahr is just one of the many that were on display: I would say photography lovers would have find this exhibition quite satisfying. I picked it because it was modified in a way that reminded me of some embroidered photos that I have seen recently, where the artist would use an old portrait photo and especially embroider on the face of the subject.
There was a part about Sanderson floral fabrics: I think most of you have seen some of those floral patterned fabrics and never given it a thought, as I had done before this exhibition. They seem something that has always been there, a popular cultural given, fabric with one of those patterns will surely lurk in thousands of lofts, leftover from Auntie, or Granny’s favourite that she left me and I could not bear to throw, or you maybe have a quilt done with scraps of that..do not even try to deny it (“oh, no, not at all, it’s too chintzy for me, too much English rose for my Aunt, you’ve never known her, a tough modern lady my Granny!), I will not ask for confessions, it will remain our cosy secret, let’s just say that as soon as you will see the patterns in my photo and you will recognise it as an old (if a bit worn out) friend. And you can say it aloud, old, because those designs have been created about 160 years ago, firstly for wallpaper and then in time also for textiles by the Sanderson factory: talk about flowers that have become classics.
There were also other pieces linked to flowers in the house, included a lovely small handpainted side table.
And of course some pieces by William Morris:
Quite interesting to have a look at all those printing blocks and drawings and pieces with abstracted flowers: it just makes me itch for a go at thinking other printing blocks or stamps to use for surface design, with streamlined abstract flowers. I just have a passion for abstract floral designs and feel you can never go wrong with one and will surely find the right time to use them! Actually, very recently I used the floral design stamp and stencil made when I took Ruth’s brilliant class on surface design to make hand painted wrapping paper to sell at a small market: so, it is all true, surface design is not just for embellishing your textiles, surface design is for life!
And, since I am keen on abstract art, I really enjoyed pieces like these of Gillian Ayers’ that made me wonder how one can make something similar in felt (it must be a lot of fun with those colours):
Or other abstract ones like this very interesting one with its definite choice of colours:
But I have also a find for the charity shop hoarders: a cornucopia style sculpture by Ann Carrington, entirely made using kitchen implements and cutlery. I checked, it is.
Another screenprint that I found very interesting as inspiration for other medias or functions (wearables or objects or..) is this one by Yayoi Kusama:
And here we finally come to some textile pieces, with these embroidered flowers:
A textile piece with a wow effect, this one was all made of individual elements in different sizes all connected by streaming yarn dangling from the various bits:
I managed to take photos of a couple of the elements in the big cloud of colours:
More attention to textiles in other artworks before going to the section dedicated to flowers in fashion:
And here we are at the fashion show:
There was an area with a big turnable display on creations by the famous Finnish company Marimekko, very popular since the Fifties:
And here we come to British fashion icons Mary Quant and Vivienne Westwood: one with a very abstract idea of flowers, the other with an exuberant use of flowers for contrast. Two very different periods in London, two different ideas of fashion.
Vivienne Westwood is a different proposition:
I have many more things to show you about this section and the rest of the exhibition, and I feel that this post is already a bit packed with images: I will stop here for now and get back to you with the second part of the exhibition in my next post.
(Plus, it is too late in the night to go on writing, the foxes are screaming outside, and it just feels time to go to bed!)
I hope that you liked the exhibition so far!
kiki.textile.art