Dew at Dawn

HAND EMBROIDERED TAPESTRY dIPTYCH

On view at ‘Stillwater’ solo exhibition at Robert’s, Glasgow from Saturday 9 July – Saturday 27 August

Work Details:
Dew at Dawn
2022
37cm x 35cm x 2.5cm per panel
Woven jacquard tapestry with silk hand embroidery, freshwater pearl and glass beads in yakisugi ash frame

Stillwater explores the facets of the mirror. Still bodies of water are presented as the primordial mirror, allowing water as a mode of reflection to speculate on the fluidity of form through a hydrofeminist lens. The mirror’s significance as a magic object, a portal of apparent depths, raises questions of authenticity and illusion, an exploration of the dual nature of the interior and external self. The exhibition’s methods of display acknowledge the looking glass’s association with beauty and vanity, with glamour explored via glamour’s etymological origins as a cast enchantment.

The central works for the show are two jacquard tapestry diptychs that depict anthropomorphic bodies of water. The moon is presented as night’s mirror, whose source of power is derived from the light of another body. The textile works are accompanied by a series of soft pastel works on paper and three wooden sculptural works created with a pyrographic etching process. The material manipulations in the show are linear, with satin-stich embroidery in silk and hatched lines created by burning into wood. Both mediums mirror each other as ritualistic processes that are alternately symbolic of reparation and destruction.

The exhibition is accompanied by a text from Daisy Lafarge