Jo Coombes gives her personal impressions of some of the art quilts at the recent Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, U.K exhibition.
Social media and quilting magazines will showcase the variety of the extraordinarily accomplished quilts and the category winners, so this is just a snapshot of a few pieces which caught Jo’s eye.
Starting with the Fine Art Masters gallery, “Flashlight” by the very talented Chilean, Estefania Tarud Karl, really showcased the perfect marriage of art and embroidery. She took simple seed stitching to a superior level.
The winner, “The Terrible Sight of Right and Wrong”, by Dr Ian Nigel Hurlstone used an original and intriguing couched thread technique across a self-portrait, to add mystery and subtlety. It made it a worthy winner in a gallery dominated by portraits.
The Art Quilt category yielded a mixed bag with many ‘pictorial’ quilts, but Jo was drawn to “The Moth Pages” by Stephanie Redfern for the use of ceramic and paper additions to the work, and “City of Dreams” by Alicia Merrett for a dazzling palette evoking an abstract urban scene.
City of Dreams by Alicia Merrett
In the feature gallery “Momentum… memories, journeys and time” there were plenty of delights. Concertina sketch books, samples and a rich array of new pieces. Jo loved Elizabeth Brimelo’s Peak district walks inspired work with a long ‘frieze’ of embroidered fabric round the walls and a beautiful large free-hanging piece.
Sandra Meech exhibited her signature water inspired pieces to highlight climate change in Polar regions.
An exceptional gallery – Denise Labadie’s “Stone Portraits and Sacred Landscapes” showed some of her portfolio of over 50 quilts featuring megalithic stones, monastic ruins and passageways. These evoke both historical and emotional memories and are dramatic because of their sheer size, grandeur and artistic use of hand painted fabric. It made for a memorable gallery.
Zero 3, a group of quilters, celebrating 20 years of exhibiting together, showed their diverse work in “Continuum”. Jo was amused by Alison Garrett’s cleverly displayed “Church Pew Graffiti” which evolved from finding words and pictures carved by bored parishioners into the pews of Alison’s old local church. Her “Beached Vessels” referenced the historical importance of canoes for human travel and trade. Amanda Duke also looked to the sea in her “The Harbour Floats” with strong abstract hand dyed and machine stitched pieces. Janet Atherton’s quilt “Crossing Red Lines” invited close study of its delicate mark making.
Finally, there was much to study in Ekta Kaul’s meticulous work. She forms connections with memory mapping, a cartography of a sense of place, the transience of her homes, her Indian heritage and her identity, through cloth and stitch. A gallery which merited time to absorb the work.
Of course, this blog has very many omissions – the galleries showcasing group work like Sue Brown’s global project, “Same Sea, Different Boat”, or the highly acclaimed and most engaging Joe Cunningham from San Francisco with his “A Life in Quilts” gallery. SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) contributes annually and this year explored contradictions and infinities with some bold quilts. Similarly, the EQA (European Quilt Association) delivered a carpet of floral creations with its “Flower Power” challenge gallery. There is always a lot to study and admire at the Festival of Quilts.