WOYWW a different take

Not desk from me this week as I have been away, but hopefully Julia won't mind that I have linked up to my latest post about the Grayson Perry exhibition as it covers weaving, appliqué and many other mediums.

Whilst we were in London recently we went to the Serpentine Gallery for the free Grayson Perry exhibition titled "The most Popular Art Exhibition Ever".

There was a collection ceramics, digital tapestry, mixed media and much more.

As I live in Bristol I particularly like this little "Banksy" rat hidden at the base of one of his large ceramic pots.

The exhibition was very political and fitting considering everything that is going on at the moment in our politics in the UK and USA.

 

 His ceramic pots are quite large and have so much imagery on them that we were all slowly walking round them so we could see each and every piece.

His digital tapestry's were very cutting edge and each had a statement

from the decline of the working class

 to a modern take on the battle of Britain.

 Some pieces (this was called "Our Mother") stopped you in your tracks as you took in everything and stood in silence as you considered the message

Other pieces took a while to read through each of the statement.  My favourite was this red tapestry mapping out everything that is wrong with the modern cities and the segregation of society and class between the 'have' and 'have not'.

He also had some appliqué pieces

As well as his bicycle (and motorbike, not pictured as I had seen it at a previous exhibition)

 

 as well as several assemblage pieces 

and even a skateboard deck!

A great exhibition and a nice companion piece to the Chris Ofili hand woven tapestry exhibition we also visited during our stay (on my previous blog post).

Kyla

 

Chris Ofili Tapestry

I was lucky enough to have a few days off work and head down to London for a few days of immersing ourselves in art of various types.  

This post is about the Chris Ofili exhibition at the National Gallery.

From his watercolours he stepped out of his comfort zone and designed a tapestry triptych called "The Caged Birds Song" which echos the writer and black activist Maya Angelou's powerful autobiographical work, "I know why the caged bird sings".

 His watercolours and sketchbooks were on display

and whilst the final watercolour is impressive

It really does not prepare you for the final room where the entire walls are decorated in his paintings and in front of you the HUGE tapestry.

The weavers of Dovecot Tapestry Studio in Scotland took over 2.5 years to hand weave the three pieces.

Their rendition of the watercolours and the way the pigment moves is magically brought to life in wool.  They get the flow of colour by blending wools to create the colours.

 

 

The scale and trying to get my head round that this is wool and NOT paint was mind blowing

 

It was a fantastic exhibition, free and not like anything I have seen before, if you get the opportunity to see it I recommend it.

Kyla

 

Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition

So, you may have noticed that I have not blogged for a few weeks.  Mainly due to a combination of my RA flaring and leaving me exhausted and the 'pay the bills' job being in overdrive and taking up much more than the 40 hrs a week it is meant to!  Not a great combination.

In an effort to break the cycle, hubby and I decided to book a very last minute break in London for a long weekend.  We did lots of 'arty' stuff but the main reason was the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition.  We have been going for the last few years and this year was a fabulous mix of different styles and mediums.  

The Summer Exhibition has been running for 247 years, which in itself is amazing in its own right.   It is sometimes accused of  being stuck in the past however this year, the exhibition is co-ordinated by Michael Craig-Martin RA – a leading artist of his generation and the teacher who nurtured the talents of Gary Hume, Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst.  It really showed, some of the room were painted bright colours and complemented the art.

I took lots of photos and these are just a few, I make no apologies for the photo heavy content of this post, if you'd like to see some of the art then please feel free to scroll down and enjoy.

 This sculpture was made from plastic sheets, similar to the sort you make conservatory roofs from, painstakingly cut and layered to create the figure.

 The art varies in size from large to small and intricate

 This one was created from various layers (like a tunnel book).

 When you looked through the apertures you caught a glimpse of the picture behind

 It gave me a feeling of snooping as you caught glimpses of life behind the curtains

 This piece was within a large glass block and the way it was cut meant you saw different views depending on where you stood

This giant head was made from coat-hangers!

 Some of the pieces were slightly disturbing

 Others blew me away

 The detail in this piece was breathtaking

 I love the fact that famous, infamous and the public can all submit pieces for consideration.  This was a large tapestry by Grayson Perry (we have been lucky enough to see a couple of his exhibitions over the years)

 The serenity of this painting was a joy

 Jim Lambie’s kaleidoscopic stairs lead up to the Main Galleries. It was really weird being able to walk over a piece of art!

 Outside you are greeted by the towering formation of steel 'clouds' by Conrad Shawcross

A fabulous trip and if you are in London over the summer and love art then I recommend a trip to the RA.  I will blog about the other exhibition we went to over the coming week or so.

Kyla

 

A colourful trip

Since I have been inspired by colour and fabric recently my mum and I had a trip out to the American Museum in Bath for the Kaffe Fassett exhibition.  It is amazing but I lived in Bath for 15 years and married a Bathonian and have never been to this particular Museum!!

 Even the entrance to the exhibition was glorious technicolour (and there was yarn bombing in the trees outside too!).

 There were several LARGE tapestry's

 and the colourful quilts were exquisite

 and I found it really inspiring

all in all a great trip out and very inspiring.

Happy crafting

Kyla