IC:Innovative Craft Blog

Meaning and imagery in ‘Follow a Thread’

Posted Wednesday 25 November 2009, 04:41pm

When Amanda invited me to include my work in an exhibition of tapestry, I was delighted to participate. I studied for five years in the Tapestry Department at Edinburgh College of Art under the direction of Maureen Hodge and then went on to teach there for another six years. I now live and work just outside of London and have just had a baby.

The series of hand embroideries entitled ‘In the Garden’ was completed in 2006 with the launch of a publication, and was produced with SAC funding. The project was initially inspired by my own collection of domestic embroideries and research at the V&A. In 2004 I was artist in residence at Winterbourne Botanic Garden, University of Birmingham, where I made dozens of drawings and took hundreds of photographs. In the past, I had steered away from traditional embroidery motifs such as flowers and gardens, and more often subverted the medium; making stitched work with depictions of uncomfortable personal narratives. I decided that it would be a challenge to refer back to those traditional motifs. Could I find meaning in that kind of tranquil imagery?

I worked outside during the residency, observing changes in the garden, looking closely at the roses which were going over, and watching the gardeners work; pulling old trees out of the ground, and turning the earth. The weather was turbulent; there were storms, rain that flooded and thunder that rolled over my head. Unlike the inert foliage in the embroideries that I had collected, the garden was in flux. There was so much change occurring in me at that time, and within the nature I was observing, that the inner and outer worlds collided in my drawings. You can view the embroideries, photographs and drawings from the residency on my website – www.annaray.co.uk

During this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival I exhibited with STAR* (Scottish Tapestry Artists Regrouped) in ‘This is Now – From Drawing to Contexture’ where I showed my large-scale textile work ‘Knot’. My next major exhibition will be a two-person show with Maureen Hodge, ‘Maker and Mentor - two distinct voices’, which we propose to tour.

Anna Ray