On the Edges of Things

It is as I prepare for trip to the USA I realise it is precisely 6 months since my return from Australia Often, when I travel as much as I am involved I often feel on the 'Edges of Things' and leave friendships and experiences behind. Yet, many of these experiences are interaction with the world are shared with others.

 Whilst in Australia, I worked on drawings and gathered pieces of fabric from my friends to make physical some of the experiences and the conversations I had about life and everything. I called this piece 'The Edges of Australia' and unrolled it is around 4 metres in length. It brings back Tea in Tasmania to ward off the cold, The wonderful early mornings in Queensland and misty views. The incredible Loy Yang power station in Traralgon which had a strange beauty all of their own  and the birds visiting the empty bird cages in my an eccentric garden in Perth
 (I am looking to return in 2018 if I can manage it).

 

  

 Making memories from cloth to hold the things close is one of the things we hold in common as textile artists. That and collecting cloth. During the Fibre Arts event at Ballarat this year in conjunction with The Lost Ones Gallery, there will be an exhibition of the work of the Australian tutors titled "The Collection".

Appearing in the exhibition (and in the detail above) is Memory Cloth #12, Numbers Lost, by Glenys Mann, marking the loss of life in the Australian bush fires of 2009


My work is inspired by emotions of the environment, the world events and emotions of everyday life Glenys Mann 

Often this 'emotion  of the everyday' is that feeling of being 'on the edge' and not being able to 'control' things which you care about you but are simply not in your control to change. Dealing with illness and change equally makes us feel we have no control.  We all have close family members and friends who are being lost to us..I am no exception.  In her work for the shortly to be opened Prescriptions at the Beaney Gallery
Artist Sally Chinea talks about the loss of her friend at a young age from breast cancer:
 The fragile textile cubes, portray life, hanging by a thread, the images show a small selection of my friend's work as well as poignant messages and moments from our friendship.

Prescriptions runs from Thursday 21 April to Sunday 14 August at The Drawing Room, The Beaney, Canterbury.Free Admission, drop in
The exhibition focuses on the book art of Martha Hall, on loan from the University of New England, and linked to a University of Kent symposium. Hall’s books documents her experiences with breast cancer and interactions with the medical community, and are accompanied by a curated show of artists books responding to themes of art, empathy and wellbeing. Supported by the Wellcome Foundation.

I have Florascript accepted to the same exhibition

They remind us of the ‘roots’ of our relationship with medicine. A time when prescriptions or ‘script’ were written up for treatment of a patient using ingredients collected and sourced from the natural world around us. During the ‘Great War’ children and adults grew and collected medicinal plants  and herbs from the roadside edges and the wild places (to compensate for the loss of German pharmacological products on which Britain was heavily dependent).