In three weeks’ time I will be working on-site on my installation for Offerings for R-Space Gallery, Lisburn. Have been thinking through and rehearsing how to install, but I suspect this will all change on location, due to light, environment and emotional state ! I am looking forward to working with the space. http://www.rspacelisburn.com/offerings/
I am slowly getting settled in at Phoenix Brighton and now getting my head into some new ideas and work. Below is my ‘new’ studio wall and some of the ideas I am currently working on.
A few photos of the final work in situ…Working live in a gallery is always full of surprises. I had some lovely unexpected conversations with gallery visitors during my two day shed space residency. These exchanges and visitors re-actions to an artist working in the gallery all at some level inform the work made in situ. Thank you to those of you who visited.
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Work made by Lucy Brown during Shed Space Gallery Residency. Arts at the Old fire Station. Oxford June 2016. Copyright – © Lucy Brown 2016
Working with a knicker elastic warp stretched around the gallery architecture steel post and attached to the ‘shed space’ shed, I have been free fall weaving and un- weaving with a mix of nylon undergarments and stockings… starting with the basement foundations of the Former Lucas Underwear Factory building in George Street Oxford…
Above; Shed Space Exhibition. Old Fire Station Gallery Oxford. Left ‘Total Support’ by Lucy Brown
above; Warp in Progress. Lucy Brown. Gallery Residency. Shed Space Exhibition Old Fire Station Gallery Oxford
above left; Lucy Brown weaving in situ. Gallery Residency. Shed Space Exhibition Old Fire Station Gallery Oxford
above right; Back of the former Lucas Underwear factory building. Back of George Street Oxford. Lucy Brown. Research
Just thinking through my forthcoming 2-day Gallery Residency as part of the Shed Space Exhibition at The Old Fire Station, Oxford. My current research has brought me to the former Lucas Underwear factory and its fire of 1965…. In 1965 The Old Fire Station would of still been active as a fire station… The Former Lucas Underwear Factory building still stands opposite the Old Fire Station in George Street, Oxford….. some thing to mull over….
I will be weaving in response to my research findings somewhere in the gallery at The Old fire Station on Friday 24 June & Saturday 25 June, 11am – 6pm. I am also leading a two hour workshop session on Saturday 25 June, 1pm – 3pm.
Shed Space continues until 2nd July 2016 at The Gallery, Arts at the Old Fire Station (AOFS). 40 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2AQ. Tel 01865 263990
For further information and booking please go to http://www.oldfirestation.org.uk/exhibit/shed-space/
My work; ‘Ladies Companions’ will be part of the forthcoming 62 Groups’ Summer Exhibition; ‘Making Space’ 17th June – 3rd September 2016 at The Silk Museum in Macclesfield. The exhibition is shaping up to be as diverse in response to its theme, ‘Making Space’, as well as in media and approach. As listed in the Macclesfield Barnaby Festival brochure;
‘Making Space’, the latest exhibition from the internationally renowned 62 Group of Textiles Artists, investigates spaces small and large; interior and exterior; personal and public; intimate and interstellar’. P22 Macclesfield Barnaby Festival 2016
‘Making Space’ private view will be on Friday 17th June 6pm – 8.30pm at the Silk Museum. Park Lane. Macclesfield, Cheshire, SK11 6TJ. Please see links for further details about visiting & opening times.
The Silk Museum and Macclesfield town are a real delight, well worth a visit for anyone with an interest in textile, history, material and making.
http://www.silkmacclesfield.org.uk/
https://barnabyfestival.org.uk/
above; ‘Ladies Companions’ – details
Materials; Human hair, vintage sewing tools and silk hosiery mending thread.
Consisting of six woven hair mementos, ‘Ladies Companions’ sets the scene for a sewing and mending ‘making space’. Hair and sewing tools have a long history of being used in religious, superstition and sentimental roles. Women have been known to use their own hair to mend her own silk hosiery.
I ran my ‘Meaning, making and materials’ workshop last Wednesday. St Marylebone C.E. School, London hosted the workshop and participants were a lovely enthusiastic mix of primary and secondary school teachers from around London, south east and mid regions. This workshop is part of the ‘Skills in the Making’ programme now run by NSEAD. http://www.nsead.org/home/index.aspx
“Skills in the Making offers a blended professional development programme for teachers of art, craft and design delivered by makers.” http://www.nsead.org/craft/skills.aspx
I have been running workshops for ‘Skill in the Making’ since 2009.
Wednesday’s workshop session introduced simple and adaptable weaving techniques using low cost materials giving starting points and suggestions for possible bigger classroom projects. Unwanted items of clothing were used as raw materials which opened up thoughts around making, material and meaning.
Thank you to Penny Jones (Skills in the Making co-ordinator), St Marylebone C.E. School’s Art Department Staff and all who participated in the workshop.
Meaning, making and materials workshop 15th Jan 2014. Led by Lucy Brown
My work – ‘In 1962 the birth control pill was available….’ 2012 is to be exhibited in a 62 Group Exhibition; British Textile Art 62@50 celebrating the 62 Group of Textile Artists 50thAnniersary. To be held at the Koyo Gallery, SHOWA Women’s University, Tokyo. Japan. 10th Dec 2013 – 25th Jan 2014
In 1962 the birth control pill was available… but only to married women. In the same year, Louise Bourgeois created ‘Clutching’ and Niki de Saint Phalle performed ‘Venus de Milo’. Using a vintage girdle elastic and a size 18 ‘Strelitz’ 1960’s dress the work questions how much control did women have over their bodies in the sixties….
In 1962 the birth control pill was available… 2012. Weave. Vintage 1960’s Northern Irish “Strelitz” (regd.) dress designed in a moygashal (regd.) fabric. Vintage girdle elastic, suspender ends, nails. 68 x 212 x 3 cm depending on installation.
Left photo- 1960’s vintage dress used for the work. Right photo In 1962… set up in studio
….watching ‘Blood and Black Lace’- (Italian: Sei donne per l’assassino) a 1964 Italian Giallo film directed by Mario Bava; and after the film had finished, my boyfriend thought it would be funny to act out the killer by hiding on the landing with a black lace stocking over his head….
the space where those secrets stay….
Lucy Brown makes... 