Emily Jo Gibbs
The textile pieces that CAA are exhibiting at Collect 2024 are a wonderful demonstration of the detail and dexterity needed for contemporary craft.
Featuring Makers Ealish Wilson, Dr Hannah White & Emily Jo Gibbs
Ealish Wilson specialises in hand stitched smocking, repeated print designs and incorporating unusual materials to create texture and form. Combining digital and hand processes adds layers to the work. The neckpiece uses vintage Swiss ribbon from early 1900s. The ribbon would have been used for clothing and Ealish decided to use smocking for the tradition of technique and added mizujiki strings and tassel ends to create movement. These pieces take on a life of their own like a precious antiquity from a museum collection but with a contemporary twist.
As a textile artist and weaver, Hannah White is fascinated by how textiles can be constructed to create architectural sculptural forms. Her work explores the interplay between the patterns within the woven structure of her fabrics, form and light.Through materials-led exploration she uses woven and stitched threads to create three-dimensional wall based and free-standing textile artworks and sculptures.
Hannah’s ‘Ammonite Shadow’ series is inspired by the sculptural qualities of Ammonites. The pleated forms spiral and curve, creating contemporary textile fossils. Different lighting conditions transform the sculptures, amplifying their structure. As sunlight moves across them, it casts a series of changing shadows throughout the day. Directional light creates dramatic shadows, extending their silhouettes and creating crisp graphic outlines.
As the woven patterns follow the undulating contours, distinctive markings appear, akin to the patterns found on the surface of shells. The blue and bronze colours reference the hues created by copper mineral deposits found in rare ammonite fossils discovered within specific rock substrates.
Emily Jo Gibbs creates hand-stitched Portraits and Still Lives with a graphic quality, observing the quiet beauty of the overlooked. Gently advocating The Value of Making by creating work that celebrates the skill, dexterity and the creative problem solving of people who make things.
For Collect 2024, Emily is showing a series of applique pieces inspired by a recent trip to Japan. She returned full to the brim with ideas and inspiration.
Her piece ‘Cloud’ was inspired by a trip they took to Hakone to view Mount Fuji. Catching a view is always a bit of a gamble because clouds can obliterate a view, but they were lucky and from the shore of Lake Ashi they watched as a single little cloud moved away from the mountain top to reveal all her splendour. The day Emily visited Saijo-ji Temple Moss Garden, she was equally lucky, it was soft rain and the damp heightened the green velvetiness of the moss carpet, it was utterly enchanting and inspired the piece ‘Moss Garden’. Her third piece ‘Rain’ was not only inspired by the weather but also by the dimensions of obi (kimono belts). In the piece Emily has used long stitches to attach hundreds of small pieces of organza to the linen banner. Each organza strip is frayed by hand, the pieces move from dark blues and charcoal at the top through to pale blue greys to mossy greens at the bottom.
