Bridget Schilizzi

My work follows my keen interest in textiles and found materials to explore line and colour. It is drawing based and influences include the abstract impressionists, Arte Povera and painters such as Cy Twombly.

This piece grew from drawings I made inspired by a photo of a small segment of chain-link fence where the wire had been wrapped with red wool. The effect was to draw the viewer to consider that piece of fence but also to what was beyond. Was the fence protecting against the unwanted? Someone inside or the observer? Like the fence, the blanket offers protection, not from intruders but from the elements. By using an old blanket, and found pieces of knitting and wool as metaphors for the unwanted, the unwanted becomes transformed into something to keep and to treasure. 

b.schilizzi@btinternet.com

Elizabeth Jane Winstanley

Vagrant City

A wanderer who has no place to go, lost and lonely. A past filled with bad decisions and selfishness or neglect and abuse? Rubbish discarded, worthless, materialistic world, non-forgiving and taking every day for granted. Cold, damp and dingy walking the ghostly streets of a concrete towering jungle. Urban grey’s, blacks, browns and growing greens dashed with the electric glow of a socially structured organism working to buy those rapidly mass produced ‘things’. Hard, crisp angles tarnished with a polluted cloud, engulfed with the fuel of a deteriorating race.

Geometric precision, precise and perfect forming a ninety degree angled world of clear cut lines. An inner city lined with dangerous humans not of this world, animalistic in their ways, unpredictable and threatening our very lives and mental awareness every day. A shaped and mastered place with contrasting palettes of smoothly expensive surfaces and fragile glass glazed to enchant the calm essence of the country into the dwelling of chaos.

 

www.elizabethjane1987.blogspot.co.uk

liz.winstanley@btinternet.com

Harriet Lawton

In his poem ‘The Cigarette’ Francis Ponge explores the comforting nature of this object, describing it as

‘a tiny torch… a glowing tip, scaling off in silver

flaked, the newest one forming a close muff around it.’

Created entirely from discarded cigarette butts and packets, this work aims to highlight the reliance upon cigarettes, an object which provides a quilt-like comfort to many. It examines the way in which the habit litters our streets, creating a carpeted surface which is echoed here in patchwork. Most significantly, it reveals the hidden treasures inside these found objects and transforms them from objects of disgust into objects of beauty.

harrietlawton@hotmail.com

NIna Citrine

My work is based on exploring the British seaside, using Brighton and New Brighton seaside resorts as my base of research. As the coast can be considered a place of freedom and happiness, I wanted to compare and contrast the differences between these two resorts. With traditional scenes of the seaside used in popular culture, my work shows the destruction of the British seaside over decades and the haven it once was for fun and freedom. History is a key element to my collages; by bringing the old and new together, I hope to create a sense of nostalgia and narrative from the photographs I use.

ninaindia2010@hotmail.co.uk

Lydia Woolley

Using photographs as a primary source and being inspired by natural rural landscapes of abandoned open spaces like fields and farms, my weave samples represent the connotations of rust, decay and the unwanted. Taking into consideration contrasting surfaces such as a raised/flat or a rough/shiny texture, the distinct colour blocks and the hidden patterns that are not so obvious to see, the chosen threads and technique structures replicate these key features.

lydia-07@hotmail.co.uk     

Sarah Walton

Exploring and experimenting with rust as a medium for mark making against denim. The rusted orange marks are representative of the coloured stitching used on denim jeans. Each piece produces its own unique and unpredictable composition as it dries. The process begins with submerging fabric in salt water and vinegar, an aid to corrode the metals faster. A selection of found metal objects is then placed on top and the mixture is left until completely evaporated. As the metals corrode a murky orange mark is left against the fabric, broken up by the crisp white of the salt which becomes crystallised during the evaporation process. On this small, fragile scale the appearance of rust is changed and becomes precious and delicate.

 

sarahelizabethwalton.blogspot.com

Rosie Millar

These images explore the visibility of the surface, its structure and restructure. They derive from a project based upon themes surrounding lace, where I examined ideas of relief and the notion of the visible and the unseen. Using everyday objects, such as elastic bands, paper clips and drawing pins, I created shibori samples which translated form and dimension. These outcomes marry my initial influences and play with the ideas I have explored – forms of relief and structure, the opacity and visibility of a surface and the creation of an intimate landscape through fabric manipulation. Photographing my work aided me in establishing the surface as a landscape, as well as allowing me to create a second surface, through shadows. It has enabled me to deceptively convey scale and form, as well as allowing me to act as a mediator between a viewer and the original piece.

 

rosiemillar.blogspot.co.uk

rosiemillar@yahoo.co.uk