Sainsbury Centre - exhibitions 15/08/2010

Just got back from a lovely afternoon out with my friend looking at the current exhibitions at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich.  have been meaning to visit the Henry Moore Textiles exhibition for ages and have just got in in time, fortunately the unearthed exhibition had started so we were able to look at both.  As an added bonus the reserve collection was open - a real mix match of items which were very interesting to wander round.

Unearthed exhibition
The exhibition holds many figures from Japan and Romania dating from 3000BC.  Although geographically distant there were similarities between the cultures and between the figures found at both sites. 

The exhibition made me think about the collective unconsciousness relating to both art and music. I find it incredibly interesting that cultures and communities, where the peoples would never have traveled and met each other, have produced art and music that is surprisingly similar. 

The figures in the exhibition were small and the majority where of the female human form (breast mounds signified this).  The Japanese figures are called Dogu.  There are similarities between the figures in that they are of a similar range of sizes, where found in similar areas within the sites and are on the whole basic representations of humans. 

Seeing the figures has made me think about the air drying clay I have sitting in my art cupboard and that I would maybe like to try to make some similar as some of them are so very beautiful.

Henry Moore Textiles
Until I saw this exhibition advertised I wasn't aware that Henry Moore had designed any textiles (I was not alone - a fact noted by the curators in the introduction area!)

Moore designed large wall hangings as well as a number of fabric designs and one of the silk squares or scarves for Ascher. Ascher printed Moore's fabrics using screen printing techniques onto silk, linen,cotton and rayon. 

I found out that a serigraph describes an artist's screen printed fabric - this distinguishes it from a commercial screen print. 

There are a number of links between his sculptures, ideas for sculptures and his fabric designs. 

I noted how interesting it is too see how different the same design looks in different colourways and look forward to trying this out when I do printing and textile courses in the future.  I have some ideas from his designs that I would like to try out myself - some of the designs are almost batik like and I have already been thinking that I would like to create some contemporary and not 'hippyish' batiks.  It has made me think even more about an idea I have to use old plain fabrics from charity shops (sheets, duvet covers etc) and then print on to these to use for bunting, patchwork, quilts etc. 

There were pages from his sketchbooks to look at this and this has made me think about how I will be able to use a lot of different media when I start my own textile sketchbooks - I noted that he had used pencil, wax crayons, watercolour, chalk, ink, pen and washes often within the same design - I must remember to use lots of diff things and see how the diff effects are and how they relate to diff aspects of the design and different techniques e.g I might use a wash for the background colour, wax crayon around batik, felt tip pen to show embroidery, stick on bits to show sequins, beads etc.

MCM Comics and Japanese bit

Went to the MCM Expo in London last weekend and my most definitely favorite bit was the Comic area.

Had been really looking forward to the Japanese area as it advertised calligraphy and origami workshops, kimono demonstrations, tea ceremonies and more but it was complete and utter pants - we tried to do some origami at a table that was less than a meter wide, with a book that you couldn't keep open and the instructions were in Japanese. When we were obviously stuck the guy on the stall ignored us and made his own thing - rubbish. The kimono stall said "try on a kimono and then pay £5 for a photo" - no thanks and the calligraphy workshops seemed to be people charging to write your name for you - big disappointment.....good job the comics were nearby to cheer us up.

One of the first stalls we visited belonged to the lovely Timothy Winchester    aka to us at the time as lovely comic book guy!  He sorted us out with our Dino-Saw-Us passports and off we went collecting stickers, chatting, looking at and a little bit of buying (wish could have spent more but teenage son is a pricey fella to take to the capital!).  Here is my completed passport - big thank you to all the sticker people and the organisers - this was officially my best bit of the whole expo...

 

Here are some links to website for some of the stalls we stopped at along the way...

http://www.lizzlizz.com/ 

http://www.paintedlunacy.co.uk/index.html

http://www.wirrow.com/

http://www.pbrainey.com/   Really wanted to buy his 'Book of Lists' but ran out of money - may order it soon as can do from website.

http://www.chibi-reki-earth.deviantart.com/   Check out the super cool painted boots and shoes on this site.  They were only £12 a pair so had pretty much sold out before we got there.  I'm going to give it a go as have been thinking about customising some footwear - just need to get some waterproofing spray

http://www.coucouheart.blogspot.com/  beautiful jewellery and also some felt things - I love making things from felt too.  Have checked out this site and has given me the idea to start putting some bits for sale on folksy and etsy - Will def be checking this out in the summer when I have time to get making

http://www.kickass-peanut.com/  Lovely little badges and bits but even better this site should soon have a link to her magical forest designs - these were beautiful laser cut rings, necklaces and key chains.  Will keep an eye on it as want to buy one of the key necklaces (had run out of cash at the time...)