Anna Rooney

 

"My work explores humanity’s relationship to nature and the ways in which textiles can promote reflection and appreciation for our environment. Urban living makes it increasingly difficult to access green spaces and our busy, fast-paced lives leave little time to slow down and support our wellbeing. I aim to engage the sense and reinvigorate a sense of childlike wonder and joy for the ordinary details present in the natural world.

I have taken conkers as my primary source of inspiration due to their common presence in urban areas and almost universal link to childhood. Photography, sketchbook work and sampling have led to a mix-media approach that involves embedding wood and ceramics into my knitted work and combining hand and machine processes. My work features two seasonal moods - one influenced by the activity and abundance of summer and autumn and the other inspired by winter and its gradual transition into spring." Anna Rooney 

My final collection includes an immersive installation space, with varied scale and consideration of colour, materials and form to make the two subcollections distinct but harmonious and complementary. For my dark collection I highlight the beauty present in quiet deterioration using flowing, branching patterns while my bright collection uses bold shapes and playful motifs. My smaller pieces invite direct interaction while the larger works inspire contemplation, altogether supporting reflection on the interplay between art, the viewer and their environment.Anna Rooney 

Caitlyn Ross

 

"This project explores the incorporation of waste through different design methods by utilising yarn waste and dead stock,  preventing it from going to landfill. These materials are broken down through slow making methods on an individual scale to influence the idea of slowing down and promoting the outlook to salvage and appreciate waste.

Through techniques such as needle felting, trapping and plating with the scrap material, the waste has been used in accompaniment with a limited selection of natural based yarns which have had little processing as possible. This will reduce the environmental impact as the only yarns that are outsourced are all biodegradable and have gone through limited additional treatment.

The project aims to promote longevity in design and consumer habits by making people more aware of their waste and recognising what can be done to extend the life of materials."

          Caitlyn Ross

Heather Russell

 

I like to showcase graduates from the Scottish Degree shows. Today it is Heather Russell and her performance piece called 'Your Majesty'. Often I see peoples works at the degree shows and see that they have evolved during their courses and should possibly have been on a different course, fine artists who maybe would have thrived more in furniture or ceramics, textile artists who maybe should have been in illustration. I wonder what Heather would have made on the ECA performance costume course and how her work will go on to evolve in future.

Ella Pengelly

"I have created works inspired by craft, which recognise the complicated relationship between art, kitsch and decorative artifacts, my work seeks to confront these boundaries. For my personal project I have created two characters Dave and Terry who feature in quite a lot of my work. Their views and personalities are aggressive and often offensive, they directly confront the absurdity of misogynist views, I increasingly see and experience as a young woman. I am interested in both the creative opportunities textiles offers, but also how textiles and craft are tangible expressions of female labour. This connection I have with the medium has empowered me and generations of women in my family, who have understood the value of craft and its rich history. I have focused particularly on quilting motifs, to create these tactile yet familiar domestic objects, combining both the delicacy of the intricate work with surprisingly confrontational statements. The work stitches these conflicting aggressive worlds of Terry and Dave’s, with the decorative environment of doilies and quilts to confront and maybe redefine what it means to be feminine...." Ella Pengelly 

Mairi Noonan

 

Language preservation through textiles was a theme of yesterday, as I met a PHD student in Dundee who was researching Inca language woven into their textiles. 

Mairi Noonan's graduate collection explores language and identity preservation through textiles.

Chan eil a -màireach air a ghealltainn – Tomorrow is not promised

"Chan eil a -màireach air a ghealltainn”, highlights the decline in the use of Scottish Gaelic from the early 19th Century to today. Punk ideology runs throughout the concept featuring anti-establishment ideas, the importance of cultural identity and the inherently political nature of how Scottish Gaelic has been repressed. This is reflected in my design choices using words and phrases integrated into the textiles to create a wearable manifesto. The gradual loss of Scottish Gaelic, and associated sadness is captured in John MacLean’s poem “A’ Choille Ghruamach”, featured throughout the knit designs. MacLean expresses his personal dismay surrounding the decline in his use of Gaelic. Though written in the 1820s, much of the same sentiments are reflected in the modern day decline in Gaelic.

Storytelling of Gaelic history through song, poetry and music allows it to be understood on a more personal level. Spectrograms from an archive recording of the poem being sung are used as imagery, connecting to the importance of archives in preserving Gaelic history. The spectrogram also demonstrates the disintegration of the language over centuries through the graduating pixels, alongside the layering of text." Mairi Noonan. 

Tristan Detwiler Stanclothing

 

Above: Jacket made from 1870-1880 "Cathedral Window" Quilt from Robbinston, Maine.

'Tristan Detwiler '  takes vintage textiles such as the '19th C economy patch quilt' above and repurposes them into stunning jackets with great flair, skill, design and pattern matching.

19th Century German Harvest, Chore coat.

Above: Chore jacket made from an early 20th century Kilim from Turkey.

1900 French table cloth, unconstructed blazer.

Above: Early 20th Century Suzani Jacket. Below: 1950's Light Suzani Jacket