British Textile Biennial - Lancashire 2023 - Part 1

Victoria Udondian - Ofong Ufok

 

Fast fashion is not a new concept to the Lancashire textile industry.  The Industrial Revolution provided the technology and momentum to utilise human and natural resources from across the globe in a ruthless cycle of labour, manufacture and trade.  The colonial links that facilitated that industry still persist in ways revealed by the British Textile Biennial exhibitions particularly those which focus on the effects of fast fashion and the mountains of fashion waste that is exported to the Global South. Many of the exhibitions are held in buildings that had a key role in the Lancashire textile industry.

Poem by Hollie McNish

Fashion Revolution is the world's largest fashion activism movement.  Made up of producers, retailers, designers, academics, business leaders, policy makers, writers and fashion lovers, it aims to investigate human and environmental issues and concerns that exist within the fashion industry. With an exhibition of posters at  Helmshore Mills Textile Museum I learnt that the Atacama Desert in Chile is one of the largest landfill sites for fashion waste in the world. This clothing arrives through the Pacific port of Iquique in northern Chile mostly from the USA, UK and Europe. This phenomenon is known as waste colonialism where wealthy nations export their waste and pollution to poorer nations who rarely have the capacity to deal with it adequately.  This has led Fashion Revolution Chile to campaign with the slogan #DondeTerminaMiRopa (Where Do My Clothes End Up?) to encourage consumers to pressure brands to be more responsible about their levels of production and to get policies to stop clothing waste from adversely impacting local communities.  

Poems were also displayed indicating attitudes to fashion for example the poem by Hollie McNish (see above) which encourages you to consider fashion workers' employment conditions and the industy's environmetal impact and how if these issues aren't dealt with as they should be then you can't consider your clothes to be beautiful whatever they look like.

Disposable by Wilson Oryema

The poem above by Wilson Oryema highlights the throwaway attitude to modern fashion and the fact it is so cheap there's no incentive to repair it and once discarded it is taken to the other side of the world hopefully to be forgotten about although Wilson also talks about it returning to smother him.

Statistics are quoted showing that the number of garments produced annually has more than doubled since 2000 with an estimated 92 million tonnes of textile waste discarded annually much of which ends up in Africa and South America damaging ecosystems and communities.

Boots from Soft Acid by Tenant of Culture (Hendrickje Schimmel)

Also at Helmshore Mills Textile Museum, in the Soft Acid exhibition, Tenant of Culture, aka Hendrickje Schimmel, was repurposing discarded fashion materials into new items and sculptures to highlight the waste and pollution at various stages of production, distribution and consumption in the fashion industry (see above and below)...

Denim Sculpture Highlighting the Use of Toxic Dyes - Tenant of Culture

At the Exchange in Blackburn, Nest Collective were showing a film - Return to Sender - within a structure made of textile waste.  In it they discussed how the textile waste from the Global North was still following past colonial connections from Europe to Africa destroying any indigenous textile industry and creating mountains of waste, creating a landfill problem.  A number of African countries had wanted to stop receiving this waste and to develop their own local textile industries but the USA threatened to rescind various favourable trade agreements if they did so meaning that, apart from Rwanda, the other African countries were unable to afford to do this because of the overall affect it would have on their economies. Nest Collective also discussed how the people in Africa buying this clothing did so because they couldn't afford anything else.  The type of clothing for sale could also be considered a form of colonial oppression as it is seen as "Dead White Men's Clothes".  This is what secondhand clothing from the Global North is referred to in Africa because why would they be getting rid of wearable clothes unless they were dead.

Nest Collective Film Studio

I choose to get a significant amount of my clothing from charity shops and online second hand clothing sites such as Vinted and Ebay but I don't have to do this and it made me consider how differently I might feel if this were a necessity rather than a choice.  There was much food for thought here.

Dead White Man - Jeremy Hutchison

The Nest Collective film linked nicely to the Dead White Man exhibition by Jeremy Hutchison at Tony's Ballroom, Blackburn.  Hutchison constructed a series of wearable sculptures from secondhand clothes and was filmed wearing them - performing the Dead White Man - in Senegal and London.  Hutchison had also worked with schools and community groups - largely young people - to create a horde of miniature zombies from secondhand clothes.  We are told that 75% of UK secondhand clothes donations are shipped to Africa and as 40% are worthless it creates a toxic landfill problem.  The Global North is using the Global South as a waste management solution that it is not equipped to deal with.

Dead White Man (Effigies) - Jeremy Hutchison & the Community

You can listen to the Cloth Cultures podcast where Sonny Dolat of the Nest Collective and Jeremy Hutchison talk to writer, broadcaster and fashion historian, Amber Butchart, about textile waste imperialism here.

Victoria Udondian - Ofong Ufok (detail)

Also on display at the Exchange was Victoria Udondian's Ofong Ufok (Cloth House) which is a monumental sculpture of secondhand clothing (see top image). It was made in conjunction with refugee and immigrant women who come together at Stitch Buffalo, a textile centre in New York, where these women can find economic empowerment through handicraft.  Making this piece allowed Victoria to bear witness to the women's stories and give them recognition.  One woman told Victoria "How can I be nobody and tell you my story." 

Ofong Ufok took about 3000 hours to complete over 5-6 months.  It also allowed Udondian to reflect on how most fast fashion is made in the Global South in repressive conditions and, when finished with, is exported back to the Global South, much of it ending up in landfill.  Udondian, who comes from Nigeria, has seen the environmental impact of this first hand.

You can listen to the Cloth Cultures podcast where Victoria Udondian talks to Amber Butchart about her work here.

Equilibrium Wind - Thierry Oussou

The Exchange in Blackburn was built in 1865 to sell raw cotton picked by enslaved Africans from plantations across the Atlantic, to Lancashire mill owners. Here on display is Thierry Oussou's Equilibrium Wind.  On the table in front of the flag, designed by Oussou in the red and green colours of the Benin flag, is raw cotton from Oussou's Benin plantation where he offers his workers better conditions than the bigger plantations in his country.  Benin is the biggest producer of cotton in Africa and most goes to Bangladesh for the fast fashion industry.  Oussou wants us to reflect on the complicated relationships that have existed and still exist in the textile industry and how that continues to affect both people and the environment. 

Sample of Penistone Cloth

In Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery was a small sample of Penistone cloth which is a coarse, cheap, woollen cloth dyed with indigo and woven in West Yorkshire.  It is believed to be the only surviving sample of British made slave cloth. This sample was found in Derbyshire hidden amongst letters and accounts and was only identified by its original 18th Century label. We are told this was supplied to a slave owner in England as a sample for 410 yards of material he purchased to clothe the community of enslaved African people held at Turner’s Hall, Saint Andrew Parish, Barbados.

It remains a link between the millions of enslaved people in colonial plantations who were clothed in such textiles and the handloom weavers who made their living producing it. 

The Biennial tells us that the Lancashire textile industry was "the manufacturing hub connecting the profits of the enslavers, colonisers, and industrialists with the experiences of local textile workers, African captives whose lives were exchanged for British-made goods, Indigenous Americans massacred and marched from their homes to make way for cotton plantations, and South Asian spinners and weavers forced into poverty by colonial laws".

You only have until 29 October to see these exhibitions.  Do go if you can and do consider what you can contribute to a Fashion Revolution - #lovedclotheslast (coined by Orsola de Castro - cofounder and creative director of Fashion Revolution). So go ahead - rewear and repair!

Bridget Bailey & The Secret Life of Hedgerows - Danby Lodge, North York Moors National Park

Bridget Bailey - Life on the Hedge

 

The Secret Life of Hedgerows, featuring the work of 9 artists, is the current exhibition at the Inspired by... gallery at Danby Lodge National Park Centre. Hedgerows, as well as the fauna and flora they support, are depicted in textiles, ceramics, print and more and the aim is to draw attention to these important features of the British landscape.

Bridget Bailey - Life on the Hedge (detail)

My reason for heading over to this exhibition was because I had seen that Bridget Bailey was exhibiting.  I love Bridget's work.  She grew up in North Yorkshire and still has family in the area although she now lives in London.  She studied textiles and began her career making sculptural headpieces and now uses those techniques and other methods of experimental making, including fly tying and the incorporation of found materials, to interpret nature inspired by her allotment.  After a Moors study day in May, exploring hedgerows and their associated wildlife and asking questions of the experts, Bridget came up with "Life on the Hedge" which represents a hedgerow population of wire flora and fauna, silk caterpillar, worms, thread insects, feather and velvet moths all living on fallen branches arranged to suggest a cut and lay hedge.  There's alot to look at and take in.  Those moths and worms are quite amazing...

Bridget Bailey - Life on the Hedge (detail)
Feather & Velvet Moths

Bridget Bailey - Life on the Hedge (detail)
Worm

Every time you look you spot something else and whether you love what you see or not (the worms are rather grossly realistic) - it's fascinating.  I also loved Bridget's Hedgerow Bouquets...

Bridget Bailey - Hedgerow Bouquets

especially the Knapweed...

Bridget Bailey - Hedgerow Bouquet (detail)
Knapweed

I was sorry I couldn't make the Knapweed Flower Workshop that Bridget was running.

Of course Bridget wasn't the only artist exhibiting.  Other artists that caught my eye were Jacqui Atkin with her ceramic vessels depicting birds...

Jacqui Atkin - Winter Chaffinches & Robin

Sarah Morpeth, a paper and book artist, was inspired by the number of organisms, especially insects, supported by the hawthorn to make pieces to celebrate that abundance.  The way hedgerows explode with life, inspired the forms and colours in this work...

Sarah Morpeth - Abundance 1 (detail)

Laura Murphy's ceramics are inspired by markings or movement.  Here the markings of field cuckoo bumblebee are represented and the flitting back and forth of the blue tits from their nest.

Laura Murphy - Field Cuckoo Bumblebee Wide Vessel

Laura Murphy - Blue Tit Flight Vessels

Sally Sommerville-Woodiwis, an ecologically inspired artist explored the differences between what might be found under a hedge and a fence.  Here this is explored through the medium of a collage of natural materials...

Sally Sommerville-Woodiwis - As above so below, fence

In the studio there was a further exhibition of artists such as Lesley Birch...

Lesley Birch - Stormy Day

and Ian Burke...

Ian Burke - Redcar Double Ender

and lots more.  So why not take a trip to Danby Lodge, which is about half an hours drive from Whitby or Kirbymoorside....

Danby Lodge National Park Centre

There's also a cafe where you can enjoy a proper brew...

plus a children's play area, picnic tables, car parking, a bookshop and walks aplenty.

New fabric necklaces arrive at cambridge contemporary crafts

Hippystitch Fabric Necklaces

A new selection of my fabric necklaces are landing at cambridge contemporary crafts this week.  It's quite a luscious selection...

Hippystitch Fabric Necklaces

Go and take a look - cambridge contemporary crafts have lots to choose from for the perfect present or as a treat. 

Hippystitch Fabric Necklaces

As well as jewellery, there are ceramics, prints and paper, sculptures, glass, textiles and cards. Find them at 5 Bene't Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QN.

Andy Warhol at the Fashion & Textile Museum, London

 

Andy Warhol - Textile with Acrobats, Clowns & Horses (detail)

Andy Warhol: The Textiles is currently on display at the Fashion & Textile Museum in London until 10 September 2023.  In the 1950s, before Warhol's career as a fine artist took off, he was a very successful commercial illustrator and graphic designer and designed many commercial textiles. 

Andy Warhol - Textile with Acrobats, Clowns & Horses
(blue-green, red-pink & yellow-lilac colourways)

The word that immediately came to mind whilst looking at Warhol's textiles was "charming".  The designs have a coherent style, are whimsical, colourful and haven't dated. The blotted, broken line outline of his designs was a signature trait.  The textile with Acrobats, Clowns and Horses is a border print with a sequence where the clown somersaults from horse to horse.

Andy Warhol - Happy Bug Day
Printed cotton beach costume - brown, orange & yellow colourway

 

Warhol's most successful commercial design, inspired by the 18th and 19th century mounted displays of insects, was Happy Bug Day for Fuller Fabrics.  It was also used for cards stationery and wrapping paper.  He produced similar designs concentrating entirely on butterflies in both muted (Happy Butterfly Day) and bolder colours (see below)...

Andy Warhol - Textile with Boldly Coloured Butterflies
Printed Silk Blouse

Many of Warhol's designs feature fruit, and lemons were a particular favourite...

Andy Warhol - Textile with Lemons
Bolero - Printed cotton

Being a stationery fiend, I particularly liked this design featuring pens, pencils and paintbrushes.  Here Warhol uses his characteristic blotted, broken line technique to feature the tools of his trade...

Andy Warhol - Textile with Pens, Pencils & Brushes

He used everyday items such as socks, boots, shoes, brushes and brooms, gardening themes, pocket watches, luggage and buttons in his designs...

Andy Warhol - Collage of Designs
Pocket Watches, Buttons, Gardening, Socks, Luggage, Brushes & Brooms, Boots & Shoes

In the early 1960s Warhol sold his last three known textile designs of ice cream cones, pretzels and candy apples to the Stehli Silks Corporation.  Those shown below were all made from the designs printed on polyester.

Andy Warhol - Ice Cream Cones, Pretzels, Candy Apples
Polyester Evening Dress, Polyester Culottes, Polyester Evening Dress

So if you want to be charmed, go take a look but remember this exhibition is closing on the 10 September 2023. I didn't know about this aspect of Warhol's work and it was great to see.  The Fashion and Textile Museum is in Bermondsey (south of the river - nearest station is London Bridge) and there are lots of cafes and restaurants nearby.  It's just near the White Cube Bermondsey if you fancy a look round there too.

The Fashion & Textile Museum has a resources room so if you fancy spending a bit of time making your own Andy Warhol style print, you can...

Andy Warhol Inspired Print

Do go if you get the chance!

Kumihimo - Japanese Silk Braiding by Domyo - Japan House - London

Domaru Armour with O-sode

 

Kumihimo - Japanese Silk Braiding by Domyo was on at Japan House, finishing on 11 June 2023. I was lucky enough to catch it earlier this year and I hope to give you a flavour of the exhibition as you can no longer go and see it.  

Kumihimo silk threads and winding equipment

Kumihimo are finely braided cords that have a long history in Japan.  They were introduced from Asia around 1500 years ago, around the same time as Buddhism.  They are often associated with the obijime, the decorative cord securing the obi sash of a woman's kimono. However they were also an important component in Japanese armour and the decorative knots that can be made from kumihimo decorated important items or garments of high ranking officials.  Modern carbon fibre kumihimo are used in aerospace enginering, architecture, athletic equipment and prostheses.

Braided Court Sashes

Kumihimo are made by tying off 3 or more strands of thread at one end and diagonally overlapping them in a consistent and uniform manner.  Complex kumihimo may use more than 140 strands of the thread but the simplest, known as mitsuami, is the 3 strand form used to plait long hair.  Braided cords are highly elastic and strong.  Their strength can be adjusted depending on the braiding and tying methods used.

Acrylic Marudai and Kara-kumi braid

A marudai, which would traditionally be made of wood, is one of the devices used to make kumihimo.  A takadai can also be used.

Room sized acrylic marudai

A marudai makes round braid whereas a takadai makes flat braid. A marudai is easier to use.

Acrylic Takadai 

Researchers at the Tachi Lab at the University of Tokyo have worked with Yusoku Kumihimo Domyo to create structures with unique properties based on origami, geometry, linkage and polyhedral packing...

Branching and Merging of Kumihimo based on the Geodesics of the Tetrahedron 

Japan isn't the only country to make braided cords.  The Yak neck ornament below comes from Bhutan.  South America also has a long history of kumihimo.  In fact the oldest known flat braided cord comes from the Guitarrero Cave in Peru and is carbon dated to between 8650 and 5780 BCE.

Yak Neck Ornament

The variety and complexity of kumihimo was quite astounding.  Hope you enjoyed this whistlestop tour.

Japan House is just near the Design Museum on Kensington High Street in London.

New Stockist - Beyond Measure

Liberty Print Fabric Necklaces

 

Beyond Measure - that fabulous emporium that stocks beautiful tools, supplies and gifts for textile lovers and makers, are now stocking my fabric necklaces.  You'll find them first with Beyond Measure at the Festival of Quilts which is taking place from 3-6 August 2023 at the NEC, Birmingham.  If you're heading to the Festival of Quilts do seek out Beyond Measure on stand F38.  Grace, the owner, has so many beautiful things to enhance your making experience. 

Go see!

Hannah Lamb - Fragment of a Dress Performance Piece

Jenny Skinner wearing Fragment of a Dress by Hannah Lamb after the performance

 

In 2022 the Bronte Parsonage Museum commissioned textile artist Hannah Lamb to create a piece for them.  That piece was Fragment of a Dress. Inspired by the museum's collection of small fragments of cloth associated with the Bronte family, especially Charlotte, and knowing that textiles and clothing are imbued with memories of special times in our lives, Hannah collected stories from museum visitors about items of clothing that they held dear. Each story took the form of a hand written note about the item and what it meant to them. Using these personal responses, Hannah and her students and colleagues stitched a series of embroidered panels onto silk organza, which Hannah then incorporated into the finished "Fragment of a Dress" which had a mid 19th century silhouette. It was on display at the Bronte Parsonage until the end of December 2022.

Here are some of the embroidered panels.  I would like to have seen what all the panels said.  I don't know if the panels were just a selection of the stories collected or all of them...

 

Hannah Lamb - Fragment of a Dress (embroidered panel detail)

Hannah Lamb - Fragment of a Dress (embroidered panel detail

Hannah Lamb - Fragment of a Dress (embroidered panel detail

On the 1 July 2023 in the Spinning Mill attic at Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley, Hannah & Jenny created a performance piece of the deconstruction of Fragment of a Dress, returning it to fragments.  The Spinning Mill attic is an empty space full of atmosphere...

Spinning Mill attic

Hannah's cyanotype prints of the embroidered skirt were on display and a soundtrack was playing in the background...

Hannah Lamb - Fragment of a Dress Cyanotype

Hannah Lamb - Fragment of a Dress Cyanotype

The dress, worn by Jenny Skinner, was cut into pieces by the audience.  This was achieved by Jenny handing a pair of scissors to each audience member, in turn, to cut a fragment after which Hannah stitched a certificate of authenticity onto each piece with her vintage hand operated sewing machine. Each fragment cutter could keep their fragment as a souvenir. The very first piece was cut by Hannah herself. She cut a sliver through several of the embroidered panels.  This seemed to give "permission" to cut a fragment however you chose.  Some cut slivers and some cut out whole embroidered panels.  These acts of deconstruction were filmed by Lucy Forrester of Proud Fox Studio.

Hannah Lamb's Vintage Sewing Machine

Hannah Lamb's Accoutrements

It was a very interesting performance - watching what people chose to cut and wondering what might become of the pieces.  I thought it was quite an act of faith on Hannah's part to see her beautiful and considered work "destroyed" in front of her (Hannah's use of the term "deconstruction" makes it seem less harsh).  I certainly found the responsibility of cutting into the piece a little unnerving.  I couldn't really concentrate on the soundtrack that was playing at the time and only caught "fragments" of what was being said.  I think it was the stories people had left her about their treasured clothing. 

Jenny Skinner & Hannah Lamb

A further performance happened later in the day.  I went to the first performance.  I particularly wanted to go to this as I hadn't been able to see the dress when it was on display at the Bronte Parsonage Museum.  I wanted to see it "whole" before it was deconstructed. I don't know if it is now completely "gone" or if there is more to fragment.  No doubt we will hear more from Hannah about its progress and I hope we will see the filmed outcome.   

I thought you might like to see the fragment I cut...

Fragment of a Dress: Fragment 3

I hope my fragment will go on to have a new life in something I make.