Works by Celia Pym and Diana Taylor
17 March – 1 April 2017 Thursday, Friday Saturday 12- 6pm
Private View: Thursday 16 March 2017 6 – 8pm
The Centre for Recent
Drawing is pleased to present works by two contemporary artists who use
textiles as part of their practice.
The artists are linked by
their awareness of ruin and impermanence; Pym seeks to fill holes and
repair worn items, while Taylor’s work uses images of ancient objects
and architecture which have been eroded by time. Both artists share a
fascination with museum collections and objects left behind from past
civilisations.
This is intuitive work; Pym
is guided by shifting the dimensions of individual threads, and Taylor
driven by images on layers of textile, both building their own new
stratigraphy. The movement of the hand in stitching thread into canvas
and knitting a swatch has a shared lineage with the fluidity of the
hand-drawn line.
In Taylor’s work, images of
Ancient Cypriot grave goods are reduced to their most simple tonal
forms, screen-printed onto bare canvas and stitched into. Machine sewn
lines follow geographical plans from the Ancient site of Kourion, Cyprus
where the artists mother is from. Interlaced with these plans are
grids, which are those often used for needlework and cross-stitch
patterns. On top of these layers sits cross stitching, reproducing
patterns found in mosaic borders and found fabrics with bold digital
prints. Taylor grew up surrounded by her mothers’ tapestries,
embroideries and cross-stitch pictures, which now seep into her work.
Colour Work is
a new piece of work by Pym centred around colour and pattern and
persistence and practice, and inspired by the irregularity of pattern
she encounters in darning. Using Jamieson’s DK and Shetland Spindrift
yarn, wool traditionally used for Fair Isle knitting she knits
rectangles of pattern without a precise plan. She is guided by numbers
(3-1-3), by a feeling of trying not to look at what she knits, just
counting stitches, and keeping her eyes up. Often finding that one piece
of knitting would influence the next, Pym changes the thickness of
stripes or the lean of the diagonal. As she progressed, the main thing
was exhausting the colours, knitting until the colour was all used up.
Celia Pym
studied Sculpture at Harvard University and Textiles at The Royal
College of Art, London. She is a qualified nurse and teaches part time
as a visiting lecturer in textiles at Royal College of Art. She lives
and works in London. Pym makes darned garments, knitted and embroidered
textiles and public textile events. Selected exhibitions &
collaborations include: Love the Yarn: Festival of Love with Lasmin
Salmon, 2015, Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre, London; What Do I
Need to do to Make it OK?, 2015-2018 Pump House Gallery, London, and
touring; 59 Sorties, 2016, with Nouveau Musee National de Monaco;
Parallel Practices Residency (Crafts Council/Kings Cultural Institute),
2014-2016, with Dr Richard Wingate exploring anatomy and mending in
KCL’s Dissecting Room.
Diana Taylor
graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art (2010) with an M.F.A in
Painting. She was awarded the Abbey Scholarship in Painting at the
British School at Rome in 2011. Other residencies include East London
Printmakers, CCA Andratx, and Modern Art Oxford, during which her
painting practise expanded to combine needlework hangings.
Alice Bygraves is
a freelance curator who has over eight years’ experience working in
museums and galleries. She spent two years working at the British School
at Rome with artists and took part in archaeological excavations. She
is Director of Geddes Gallery, a nomadic space which was first housed in
KC Continental deli on Caledonian Road.
For more information and images please contact Alice Bygraves: info@aleeechay.com