My practice explores themes of place, memory and experience. By conveying these ideas through tactile textile methods, the work intends to depict the instinct of human interaction that is often dissuaded when exploring ancient ruins and historic sites. Through the use of text and location-influenced shapes and motifs, my practice aims to communicate the beauty and history that still remain within these dilapidated forms.
When creating the designs for these pieces of work, I utilise the many images and memories I have acquired from my own explorations of Bradgate Park. Having this personal experience and nostalgia attached to the location ensures that I can capture the key elements that I feel make up this beautiful and historic environment of ruins. By utilising textiles and embroidery, as well as paint, my practice manipulates these man-made signs and elements, and re-invents them in the form of more traditional tapestry-style pieces. The rigorous selection of material, font, thread and colour palette are all crucial in ensuring that the work communicates these human impacts within the setting of these historical landscapes.
My work initially explored collage as a medium – cutting, layering and sewing organic shapes of material to create assembled landscapes and textile-paintings. I began to incorporate text and signage as a method of communicating the effects that human interaction have on these areas which have begun to be reclaimed by nature. I have experimented with the use of motifs within my pieces which have developed into the use of more refined and thought-out lines of stitch which better communicate the ghosts of these once thriving and lived-in grand structures. I began to experiment with the intentional fraying of the fabric, manipulating the raw edges of the material to further depict the fragility that lived histories and experiences have imprinted on these architectural forms and environments.
