Saturday 24 October 2015

What Do I Need To Do To Make It OK? - Pump House Gallery, London

Celia Pym - First One's the Best



Recently on a flying visit to London I popped into the Pump House Gallery in Battersea Park to see "What Do I Need To Do To Make It OK?"  It's an exhibition about "damage and repair, disease and medicine and the healing and restoration of landscapes, bodies, minds and objects through stitch and other media".  Some of the work on show follows ...


Celia Pym - I Think I Will

Celia Pym has used darning as a tool for understanding mending both in garments and bodies.  In the "First One's the Best" she continually practised her darning technique recording differences as she became fluent with the process.

Freddie Robbins - Basketcase
Freddie Robbins - I'm So Bloody Sad

Freddie Robbins through knitting, crochet and sculpture explores her preoccupation with sadness, pain, fear and anxiety.  (You may remember her Knitted Homes of Crime which were part of WOW - the Contemporary Art of Knit & Stitch exhibition at Rheged in 2012 where Celia Pym was also exhibiting)

Dorothy Caldwell - Comfort of Fog
Dorothy Caldwell - History of Stone

Dorothy Caldwell describes her work as "a map of land and memory".  In the wild landscapes of the Artic and Australia she has looked for traces of current and past civilisations and records these through techniques of patching, mending and darning.  I have written about Dorothy's work before - you can find it here


Saidhbhin Gibson - Comfort & Joy
Saidhbin Gibson - Huddle 2D (print)

Saidhbhin Gibson is concerned about humanity's impact on the environment.  Her work interacts with nature often through stitch as in the crocheted addition to the thrush's nest in Comfort & Joy.  There is ambiguity in her work as to what makes things better - art or nature.


Karina Thompson - 60 beats a Minute
Karina Thompson - The Leper's Skull

Karina Thompson's work looks at the physical aspects of disease through heart scans e.g. the machine embroidered "60 beats a Minute" and scans of historical bones from medical archives such as "The Leper's Skull".

If you're in London this exhibition is well worth a look.  It's on till 1 November 2015. 

"Beauty is the First Test - Contemporary Craft & Mathematics" was also on at the Pump House Gallery. You can read about it here.

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