October‘s CRITgroup welcomed the long-anticipated Jo Scorah to present her work. Yet another multi-functioning creative practitioner, Jo was originally a dress designer before completing a degree in embroidery in 2004 and then moving on to an MA in textiles in 2008. She also runs a graphic design company but it was her sculptural textiles that she shared with us this evening. With a practice in this area that historically revolves around the body, this evolved during her explorations on the MA into far more sculptural pieces.
| She employs an interest in mark making through stitch (amongst other methods) to bring textural detail into a series of works which investigate themes of transience in terms of homelessness or the need for refuge, particularly citing this in the context of military conflict. She draws upon her Libyan family background to inform this and also shared with us photographs taken of army encampments in Israel during the Lebanese war. Her sculptures realise aspects of this by referencing physical methods of carrying and housing personal belongings during such crises; soldiers bags, tents and temporary accommodation. Much of her works exist both in and beyond the dual camps of garment and sculpture and she prefers to describe her practice as ‘sculptural clothing in an ambiguous way; 3D works of art that could be used in performance.’ Many pieces are both displayed in a gallery and worn in videos or photographs and her use of materials as well as the inclusion of the model invite the audience to consider the relationship between the external surface textures and the ‘refuge’ of the interior. She then uses features such as boning to create structure in the garments forcing the body into awkward positions which then cause us to question just how comforting the promised refuge can really be. This dialogue between the internal and external is also used as a metaphor for conflict itself, as in ‘Bubble’, her MA show piece which references the Middle East conflict as ‘a bubble fit to burst’. Where these pieces are worn in performance, they frequently depict the model as inside the bubble, trying to escape from it. 
Susie MacMurray and Jo Scorah, Icarus
| 
Jo Scorah, Refuge, Wall mounted garment
Jo Scorah, Refuge, Worn by model
Jo Scorah, Bubble
|
In July of this year, Jo collaborated with Susie MacMurray on a commission for the WWF 50th Anniversary Show Pandamonium in Hyde Park. Their piece Icarus, reflected on the environmental themes of the event by invoking “the cautionary tale of the dangers of over-reaching ourselves” and comprised a wearable sculpture formed from a harness and a train of ostrich feathers threaded into wire mesh. It was sold at auction for £10,000. She is now developing the technical aspects of this piece by knotting leather thong through wire mesh in a similar way to produce an almost lace like aesthetic and is working towards producing a head piece for exhibition.
| Tucked into the schedule at the last minute, we still managed to make time to hear next from Lucy and Liz from Manchester based artists’ collective MidConversation. They came along to share with us their recent installation as part of the Free for Arts Festival, during which they took over an empty shop space in the Northern Quarter of the city and turned it into a temporary open studio. This installation; Open, was primarily an interactive piece and so was constructed in the space for the duration of the festival with the express intention of involving volunteers and passers-by in the creation. The ‘finished’ piece was only up for two hours at the closing event on Friday evening and featured a series of hinged pyramid shaped boxes which were designed to be moved, manipulated and reconstructed by the audience. 
MidConversation, Open installation
| 
Lucy demonstrates an object from Open
Having graduated last year, this is just their second project working together (they recently completed a piece in the textiles gallery at MOSI) but have found that operating as a collective enables bigger projects to be realised than working alone. As a result, their experience of the Open installation has been very positive and despite an initial moment of discomfort when it became time to ‘let go’ and allow the participants to interact with the piece, they soon found people enthusiastically manipulating the shapes in unexpected ways. Following on from the piece, the objects will now be used in a stop motion music video and it has been proposed that they might be utilised as design objects such as book cases and tables. Oh (I almost forgot!), and I will also be collaborating with the group on November the 12th, through an urban intervention with the Open objects documented with the Placemaking boards, bringing in an additional element of interaction. |
Hallowe'en Biscuits
Through an unprecedented feat of focussed concentration, despite all that content, we still had time for additional discussion (and we hadn’t yet run out of Hallowe'en biscuits) so James Sharp shared with us a few developments to his gift card holders and textile journals. Christine Wilcox-Baker also agreed to make a presentation of her work to us early in 2013 and we decided that next month will be set aside to revisit websites and online promotion as well as to have our first proper discussion about planning a CRITgroup collaboration.
So that concludes my summary for October 2012. Next month will be the 12th meeting which sort of technically makes it our birthday; however you will see I have actually listed December as the ‘official’ 1 year marker. This is because our first meeting wasn’t at MadLab so December will be our 12th meeting in the space and also because it seemed like a good month for a bit of a knees up. It’s then onward and upward into 2013 for lots more Creativity, Reflection, Investigation and Talking! How time does fly!
So that concludes my summary for October 2012. Next month will be the 12th meeting which sort of technically makes it our birthday; however you will see I have actually listed December as the ‘official’ 1 year marker. This is because our first meeting wasn’t at MadLab so December will be our 12th meeting in the space and also because it seemed like a good month for a bit of a knees up. It’s then onward and upward into 2013 for lots more Creativity, Reflection, Investigation and Talking! How time does fly!
RSS Feed
