A friend and I recently visited the cotton exhibition at the Whitworth Gallery, mainly because I was desperate to see the work of Yinka Shonibare. Sadly I was a little disappointed by both its displaying and scale.
But there were many other interesting pieces in the gallery such as a projection onto two flowing draped pieces of silk. Then projection was of sari fabrics being swirled through the air and slowed down to create beautiful bold colours that flowed into one another gradually.
Another exciting work was a length of fabric created by artist Anne Wilson and Lancashire and American communities. The fabric is said to "address the vast disconnect between,
buyer, product, maker and wearer". This is an interesting idea and I want to look into more socially conscious concepts and aspects in my work. The colour combinations in the weave were also inspiring and showed lots of experimentations that worked really well. I would like to explore weave and its techniques further.
I was also thrilled to see Paula Rego's prints in the flesh from the downsized "Dark Matters" exhibition. The attention to detail and quality of line were just stunning, the speckled background would make a beautiful fabric print, and her illustrations would be perfect inspiration for a dark twisted collection based upon fairytales, which are very popular within cinema at the moment.
