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EAST MEETS WEST
The Courier and Advertiser, Tuesday, June 6, 2006
By Helen Brown, Features
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EAST MEETS WEST |
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Helen Brown spoke to three Scottish makers abut taking their work to the Far East for a special exhibition to forge links between the two nations. SENSE OF Identity is a pretty appropriate title for an exhibition of work that will highlight not only the skills of a series of talented Scottish textile artists, but also their sense of identity and relationship with their natural landscape. Taking place at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Itami in Japan, from June 22 until July 2, it is funded by Saskawa and the Dawia Trust. The exhibits are the visual, textural and colourful results of the way in which the featured artists have absorbed and embraced their history, traditions and environment. National identity and its place in an ever-shrinking world also plays a large part in the artists’ thinking, so it could hardly be more apt that this very Scottish work is being shown in a truly international context. Eight artists altogether will be taking part. Three of them, Ruth Morris, James Donald and Claire Heminsley have links to Dundee and Fife and Ruth teaches at the Graham Street campus of Dundee College. James and another participating colleague, Fiona Hutchison, had shown in Japan before and wanted to get a group of Scottish Artists together to show the wide range of artistic creativity currently at the cutting edge of textile design. Ruth has long had a passion for the landscape and light of the Outer Hebrides and for the past five or six years has been using that iconic Scottish material Harris tweed – not only for its own qualities and for the colours of nature that it can mirror, but also for the way that it can be changed and altered. “I’ve been working on felting the fabric and printing on it, which gives a whole new range of effects. It’s very exciting because not only can I do my own creative work but I also get the chance to work closely with the weavers of the cloth who make such beautiful fabric. It’s a pleasure to work with.” Ruth’s own label, Roobedo, has clothes, accessories and beautifully-detailed fashion items from bags to mittens and as well as selling to fashion conscious-women of all ages, she has also exhibited throughout the UK as well as Sweden and Germany. Dundee raised, she is now based in Pitlochry, having trained in clothing at the Scottish College of Textiles and worked for small companies in the Clothing Industry before setting up on her own. Having spent family holidays in the Hebrides since childhood, she has been strongly influenced by the shades of sky and sea in her work and feels it has a distinctive Scottish flavour, linking a very contemporary approach to making clothes and artefacts with the great and timeless traditions of tweed weaving.
Above: Ruth’s work is at the cutting edge of textile design
Above: Sea Urchin Skirt by Ruth Morris 22nd June – 2nd July 2006 |
