Dear ALL
Dates to diarise:
- Thursday, 25 May to Saturday, 27 May 2023 Exhibition and Stoep-
Tasting at Nieu Bethesda 'Taste the Karoo' More on this later. - Finances:
Odette Tolksdorf is leaving Durban so Jeanette Gilks has agreed to become one of the three signatories on the Fibreworks account. Sarojani Naidoo and Helga Beaumont are the other two.
Address: 8 Kingston Lodge
60 Campbell Drive
Chase Valley
PIETERMARITZBURG 3201
Time 9.30. we will have a Bring and Share lunch, as usual.
All the Durban members are prepared to drive to Pietermaritzburg so please make every effort to attend the meeting if you live in Pietermaritzburg /Midlands. We need to discuss Face to Face some of the important issues that I spoke about in the Zoom meeting on the 25th February.
Report back of the first Zoom meeting held on 25 February 2023:
A big thank you to Mandy Shindler for an excellent presentation on how she presents and photographs her work. So professional, Mandy, thank you.
I know that this meeting was recorded, and you were sent a copy of the recording. Thanks, Rosalie, for attending to this. I am nevertheless going to jot down the salient points of the meeting that chiefly concern our AGM, so that the newsletter captures our thinking.
I asked you to think carefully about the matters raised, and to consider some of the implications of these changes for our organization. Please let Helga know in writing if you feel strongly about anything and live in JHB or the Cape and obviously cannot attend our meeting. Your voice will be heard and recorded in our next newsletter.
We are living in times of great change right now.
- We are all getting older and some of us are experiencing some difficulties in travelling. Poor roads and escalating petrol costs have exacerbated this.
- Odette is no longer living in Durban and is now unable to receive the work of prospective members. This assessment of prospective members' work has always been done at the AGM by members attending the AGM. Thanks very much Odette for having done a fine job for us for about 15 years. Your input to the smooth and efficient running of Fibreworks has been invaluable and I will miss you and our spontaneous coffee dates at your home.
- There are now only 4 of us who live in Durban: Sarojani, Helga, Rosalie and myself. Leonie is not well and will not be attending any further Fibreworks meetings.
- There are now more KZN members living in the PMB and Midlands area
- The AGM attendance has been dwindling steadily over the years. Last year - 2022 - there was not even a quorum and we needed to call on members living further afield for assessment input.
Here are the benefits for the Fibreworks membership:
- Zoom meetings are convenient as they obviate the necessity to travel.
- There will be no need for the collection of prospective members' work.
- There is a better chance of us seeing each other directly at the AGM, albeit on a computer screen. I have missed seeing the faces and hearing the voices of Fibreworks' members at the AGM's.
- Zoom meetings are more inclusive and could become more inclusive as more and more of us grow accustomed to this online platform. Those of us who have stepped back from Fibreworks over the years can now step forward again and join the online community. The success and dynamic chat of the WhatsApp group is proof that we do care about each other and are willing to share, debate issues and to listen. I don't see why our AGM cannot follow this example.
- The assessment of work could also possibly become more democratic as there would be a greater number of members attending the AGM.
- No shipping costs.
- No anxieties regarding delivery and the safe returning of work.
- Submission of work online will be quicker and more efficient.
- Assessment process is fairer if all the Fibreworks members who are online at the AGM vote either Yay or Nay.
- Assessment is therefore more democratic.
Our two National online exhibitions in 2020 and 2022 were sophisticated and professional and the visual clarity of the images was excellent. Submission details regarding photography need to be repackaged and presented to accommodate the point of view of the prospective member.
Online assessments of submitted work are now the customary procedure in all major juried exhibitions, both here and abroad. This trend, gathering momentum over the past 10 years or so was hastened by the worldwide Covid experience, and nowhere in the world are things going back to 'the way things were'. We need to keep up with current trends, not only in what we wish to communicate but how things are done. Failing this, I fear we will become a mere footnote in the history of South African textiles. Finally, there are quite a few of us who have been assessing work online for several years perfectly successfully. With good courage and a strong will, I have no doubt we will adapt to the change unfolding around us.
- Members news:
- Celia de Villiers
What a wonderful poetic group of people we have in Fibreworks! The contributions for the meeting were so enjoyable to read, I regret even more having missed the discussion. Cathy Knox has such a beautiful way with words, I used to read all of her texts that I could find (when she wrote for magazines way back when), long before meeting her in person through Fibreworks. Good luck in your rediscovered surroundings Cathy and also Sally.
Thank you everyone for the long and pleasant association especially Helga, Jeanette, Odette and Rosalie who have kept the wheels rolling for ages.
Odette, I am sure Cape Town will be welcoming you with open arms. I hope 2023 brings everyone good health and many creative hours.
Celia
- Paul Schutte
Background and context:
Once in a month the restored Snowflake building (an old mill with several large open spaces) is the venue for an open market with a variety of stalls, food, etc. for two days. People from all spheres and backgrounds, and even other provinces, come to visit.
My exhibition was partly a retrospective exhibition as earlier works were also included to inform a wider public who have never been exposed to textiles as an artistic medium of expression. Works using different techniques of construction and different styles were also included. This would not be done in a regular exhibition where only one style and one theme would be appropriate. Descriptions of these techniques were put next to the works to inform the public. I also did several scheduled walk abouts for different groups. The exposure and overall response of the visitors was positive and even overwhelming.
Artist's statement
My exhibition "Diversity" conveys my desire to present a culmination of techiques, thought processes and conceptual renderings in conversation, in the context of one large exhibition.
I am enchanted by the sheer beauty of materials: fabrics and textiles of all types and places, and other elements that can be brought together with surprising results. Therefore, my work makes labour manifest, and shows my love for any textiles together with the excitement of experimenting with ancient as well as current techniques.
These techniques and textiles are my painting instruments that allow me to create my own visual language in which I, child of the universe, can 'speak'. I am especially fascinated by how the basic building blocks of line, colour, shape, texture and the like each have special energies that I harness to realise the composition and content of a work. At times meticulously mathematically conjectured, and sometimes with greater spontaneity. Choices of design and patterns that I place next to each other to 'construct', e.g. trees or landscapes, are key, and each work is like a jigsaw puzzle that I design and put through various processes with care and curiosity.
Each work is therefore a story, a world with wholes and fragments that hope to integrate the aesthetic with reflections on our human condition. I am awed by the power of the imagination to make concrete experiences, memories and realisations, and to render these in visual terms. And so I ruminate on the evanescence of existence, on the whispers of the universe in galaxies and cells, on the earth and her promises of new life and infinite possibility. I use suggestions of trees, seasons and travels as vehicles of meaning, while paying homage to the senses: seeing, sensing the tactility of the work, and, who knows, to hear the voice of the Great Unseen.
Most aesthetic elements of composition are at play when creating a work, but this exhibition focuses on three of these in particular:
Line as primary focus: straight, diagonal, curved, bent, wayward, thin, wide, bright, wisphy; and also the rhythms, shapes and illusions that can be created using line in diverse ways.
Colour as secondary focus: from very bright saturated colours to foggier shades, together with the effect of these on adjacent colours. Also, and particularly, the tints, hues and tonal values rather than the colours themselves play a key role.
Texture as third focus: the visual texture and patterns on the mostly cotton textiles are used separately and in conjuction with one another or with plain fabric in the composisitions. In certian works I also used tangible textures such as threads, wool and raw silk in the creative process.
With regards to technique, there are five sub-sections in this show:
Stylised 'line landscapes' using mainly free hand strip piecing.
Tree landscapes where geometric shapes are pieced to create an organic backdrop for the stylised raw edge trees that are mostly used as metaphors.
Abstract 'line constructions' using mainly precision cut strip piecing.
Abstract works according to the Kawandi/Kantha method
Abstract works based on the so-called Chenille method.
In all the works, I followed basically one of two approaches:
Most works were started from a basic idea or image, then improvisationally constructed, as my spirit led me (or suffered me). Others were planned with meticulous mathematical accuracy, worked out as finely as fabric allows; followed by precision stitching and construction, as one sees in the abstract 'line constructions'.
I thank the Great Creator for the grace and joy of creating with textiles; small, finite and transitory as this may be.
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Mystery of Outer Space |
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Sydney Opera in Africa |
- Exhibitions
- Taste of the Karoo in Nieu Bethesda 25 - 27 May; CALL FOR ENTRIES
Her phone no is 083 556 3043
Entry deadline: 5 May
Delivery deadline: 19 May 2023
- Diversity at Rupert Museum Stellenbosch
Dear Artists
Today the Diversity exhibition at the Rupert Museum was dismantled. All your works have been packaged and are ready to be returned to you which Eliz-Marie Schoonbee, Curator at the Rupert, is hoping to accomplish this week. She will be in touch with each artist.
Congratulations to the following artists whose works were sold:
Elaine Barnard, Danielle Clough, Jeanette Gilks, Jenny Hearn, Gerda Mohr, Linda Rademan, Paul Schutte, Diana Vandeyar and Roy Starke's work.
As you can see, eight of the twenty two works were sold which is a wonderful result. A very big thank you goes to the Rupert Museum for being willing to host this exhibition and for their extremely professional and generous handling of the shipping and various other aspects that made Diversity such a success. Many people visited and all were fascinated by the fibre art. It has been an amazing opportunity to showcase our art.
I wish you all a very creative and productive 2023 and thank you again for exhibiting your work.
Kind regards
Dal Botha
Kind regards
Jeanette (Chairman)
