Dear ALL
Dates to Diarise:
- 10th - 19th June 2022 Fynarts Festival, Hermanus. Some of our members have been invited to participate in this prestigious exhibition. Theme: "Ebb and Flow"
- June 2022. June next year still on the cards for staging our National online exhibition.
Remember, one of the important functions of the newsletter is to keep a history of the group and of the individual members' personal achievements and the December newsletter is especially dedicated to these achievements. Also, not all Fibreworks members communicate on WhatsApp.
Finally there's a chance too that the newsletters will outlive the WhatsApp life span/popularity: look at the decline in the sales of Compact Discs when the iPod was released in 2001, and vinyl records are now becoming real collectors' items! Not sure if the newsletters will become collector's items, but perhaps we will, as a number of us approach or are already in our 70's! What with new rampaging Covid and death so newly in our consciousness, I feel our lives are so fluid, and at the same time deeply opaque.
Who knows anything anymore.
Exhibitions:
- Fibreworks Biennial Members' Online Exhibition 2022
For your interest, please find below an excerpt from an article written by Diana Vandeyar. She raises some good points when taking your own photographs, so take note. She, together with the South African Quilters' Guild, kindly gave us permission to share the article on Photographing Quilts that Diana wrote for the Teacher's Forum newsletter. This information is also available on the SAQG web site under Resources, Teachers Forum.
- Photographing Quilts
Whether you are entering a show, marketing a class, or posting on the socials, a great photo promotes your work long before anyone has read the description.
You've made a significant effort in producing a stunning quilt, lesson plans, class notes, samples, learning and perfecting your area of quilting expertise, so don't let poor photography let you down. I believe it is a vital skill that needs to be learnt and practiced, and ultimately it will significantly enhance your work. Quilt photography takes time, so do not rush the process.
Digital camera or Smart phone?
I will be referencing features on the iPhone because that is what I use, but I am sure other smart phones have similar features. Use what you have, but like any tool, make sure you know how it works… read the manual! You do not need to use the most complicated settings or features, just make sure that you are getting the most out of the simplest functions.
I discovered that my digital camera has a "Museum" setting which produced really good results when photographing quilts for shows. Check your pre-set "Modes" to see if any are suitable for taking photos of quilts.
Smart phone technology has come a long way and the quality of phone cameras is amazing. Turn off "Live" photos and "Flash". HDR (high dynamic range) ON or OFF? HDR helps you get great shots in high-contrast situations, so try both and see which gives you the best shot. I always tweak my photos using the photo editing function on the phone to slightly adjust brightness, contrast, straighten and sometimes "Filters" to correct the colour balance.
Flash: OFF
Grid: ON
HDR: ON
Live: OFF
Equipment:
If you have an unsteady hand and your photos look a bit blurry, use a tripod, which is not expensive to purchase. You can also use the camera's self-timer if you are holding the phone, less chance of camera shake. I use a cheap phone mount/bracket with my tripod.
Location and lighting:
Recon your home both morning and afternoon to survey where to find the best light at different times of the day. Check every room, opening your curtains to get the most natural light.
Take LOTS of photos, shifting your angle or position slightly each time. You can always delete what does not work, but you may be surprised by a perspective you did not consider.
Indoor lighting. Lights on or off? Take photos with both and see which gives you the truest colours and best shot.
PHOTOGRAPHING LARGE QUILTS
No way to get around this, but you will need a large wall, or consider built-in cupboards, garage doors, exterior walls, fences, or any large leafy area in your garden.
Make sure your quilt looks its best, it may seem obvious but de-fluff and straighten that quilt! Use a piece of rolled up tape on the back to hold down corners or edges that do not behave, especially for an outdoor shot on a windy day. For show quilts I would recommend blocking, quilts hang beautifully straight and look so good after they have been blocked!
Hang the quilt (using a quilt sleeve and rod), pin it to your design wall or use a quilt stand (photographic backdrop stand) to get your best shot. A quilt stand is great for positioning your quilt in just the right location in your house or garden. Small quilts can be taped to a wall using rolled pieces of tape on the back. If you have a large, well-lit wall, use Command Strips to temporarily attach hooks to your wall as a support for a rod. If you do not want to sew a hanging sleeve, you can attach your quilt to a rod with café curtain clips or spring clamps.
If you do not have a large design wall or quilt stand you can improvise a hanging system with cheap non-permanent back-of-door hanging hooks hung on a built-in cupboard.
3 © Photographing Quilts -
Diana Vandeyar - 2021 - All rights reserved
- TAPE (Textile Art Port Elizabeth) Exhibition: OUT OF THE BLUE
GFI GALLERY, GQEBERHA
Thank you Anna, and Angie and Michaela, and to everyone else who has joined us.
As Anna said, this is a rather unusual opening in that we would normally all be face to face, or in this case, Face To Fabric…but here we are linked visually, digitally, aesthetically and emotionally.
So thank you to the GFI Gallery, for making this all possible, to TAPE and the Keiskamma Art Project not only for the fabulous textile art, but for the often unseen work that goes on behind the scenes to organize a fabulous show like this.
We appreciate this opportunity to see the work and have a conversation with each other about what we see, why we think it's there, where it comes from, and where it might be going.
When we've each had a chance to say a few words, there may well be some comments or questions to us, which you are most welcome to pose.
But before we talk about this fabulous exhibition, I want to start on a personal note that I have to say tugs at my heart strings…Although right now I am sitting here in Durban, I have an Eastern Cape background as I grew up in a rural area on the very far other end of the Eastern Cape, later I lived not far from where you are in PE, taught there in New Brighton and in Grahamstown at the Johan Carinus Art Centre and Rhodes Ed Dept, and my first child was born just a few hundred m away in Park Drive. So this is…. take a deep breath, meaningful stuff to me.
I am honoured to be part of this.
The invitation did come OUT OF the Blue.
But let's talk about the exhibition OUT OF THE BLUE
What an interesting title, with connotations of surprise and unexpectedness.
We know figures of speech have definitions and connotations that go beyond the literal meaning of the words…
But I have to disagree with this all coming Out Of The Blue…
Seeing this wonderfully thought provoking exhibition is NOT a surprise in my view, for multiple reasons: It hasn't come out of the blue…
1. We are all products of our history.
2. Look WHERE we are: Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape
What an extraordinary richly and varied part of the world this is. Not only is it physically an incredibly powerful landscape ( that, by the way, produced the aloes that we see in Angie's amazing work, the birds, fish, landscapes and stories ) but it has, produced a remarkably strong resilient articulate creative people…not just in the most recent difficulties of the Covid pandemic, but going through the years of South African history and it's often very painful past, where people, particularly in the Eastern Cape, have struggled to overcome almost insurmountable difficulties.
3. We are human beings…we HAVE to communicate and tell our stories and somehow put our thoughts, experiences and ideas out there.
Remember some of the earliest known art was done not that far from here at Blombos cave showing that imperative NEED to communicate and make our mark because…
4. We are artists, specifically textile artists, so it stands to reason that we use the most human and readily available of materials to respond to our environments.
We use the fabric, that we wear and feel next to our skins and the thread that holds it together…It is almost an extension of our own skins.
Whether we respond by making, as you will see in this exhibition, work that is realistic, pictorial, representational, symbolic or narrative, we are using fabric and thread and stitching with that versatile tool, a needle, maybe by hand or maybe by machine, sometimes maybe testing and stretching the boundaries of the medium itself to see where it can go and what can be done with it.
Of course a needle can also be a weapon…it pierces and stabs fabric, but textile artists, while piercing fabric, are also not only describing what they see and feel, they are involved in acts of healing. They are repairing, mending stitching together and making new while they think, meditate and make and do. The wonderful result comes in making something new that did not exist before.
The fabric itself may be new, maybe even produced in the Eastern Cape, but it may well be something that has been previously used, carrying its own history and spirit and feel in its tactile magic.
And thread, thick or thin, that holds it together in long strands or short flashes of color and texture that lead the eye is actually 3-dimensional line that can mend and as well as mark.
- Now what about the needle?
"The needle is used to repair damage. It's a claim to forgiveness. It is never aggressive, it's not a pin."
And also says, "The act of sewing is a process of emotional repair".
- So taking the idea that
Growing out of that, you will see here an exciting variety of work ranging from the clearly pictorial to work that stretches the mind of artist and viewer with texture, color and with 3-dimensional sculptural pieces.
In the explorations of the artists using a range of textile expressions, all speak of the versatility of the medium and the inventiveness and integrity of the artists.
We are all aware of the growth of this time-honoured medium, around the world, but here tonight it is our particular honour to focus on the works made by TAPE and extraordinary Keiskamma Art Project
So it is my privilege and pleasure to declare this OUT OF THE BLUE exhibition open.
Thank you Rosalie.
Further achievements of members:
Tilly de Harde
It has been a quiet year for me as far as exhibiting is concerned. I took part in three exhibitions in Pretoria:
The Threads That Binds Us. The Viewing Room,
Connectivity. Johann van Heerden's Art Gallery and
Thread(ed) Exhibition. Pretoria Arts Association
More recently my work THAW1 was exhibited in the Out of the Blue exhibition at the GFI gallery in Port Elizabeth. THAW 2 is currently part of the Power of One exhibition at The Art Room in Parkhurst.
Fiona Kirkwood:
Although it has been a very tough year for my health it has been an outstanding one for my work.
In 2021 I received two major awards. You have already shared the link to my Silver Award early this year on the 11th International Fibre Art Biennial----"From Lausanne to Beijing." This was a great thrill as there were 26 jury members from 13 countries on the panel.
In September this year, I was informed that I had received the Visegrad Award for crossing borders in textile production with my film "Rain "2021. The award was announced at the opening of V1 Textile Art of Today at the Danubiana Meulenstein Art Museum, Bratislava, Slovakia. It was awarded by the curators from Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The exhibition will travel to museums in cities, including Budapest, in the latter three countries during 2022-23.
It has been a long journey of hard work but I have been blessed to have exhibited in important international exhibitions in 23 countries and had my installations shown in many major art museums, palaces and a castle and met amazing artists.
My 2021 - Catherine Knox
Words can't express my gratitude for the support and encouragement I have come in for this year.
Welcoming my work back from the USA draws to a happy close my efforts to exhibit in spite of everything. Big thank you to Odette for organising our participation in the World Quilt Show tour each year: such an affordable and trouble-free way of getting one's work into the wide world.
2021 has been another good year in the Eastern Cape - a cash-strapped, under-populated creative crucible. The Dias Quilt Guild gives me access to energy, support and info. My other group, TAPE (Textile Artists Port Elizabeth), is super-charged: our Christmas bring-and-share lunch was held in the Gqeberha art museum under the massive Keiskamma Geurnica tapestry.
Thanks to Antoinette Kriel (she gives so much time and energy to egging us on with challenges and shows) I have shown work (which sold) at the GFI gallery and (currently) at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum. Also thanks to Antoinette, my work has been included in two group shows in Nieu Bethesda. Most recently, my suitcase installation is part of a travelling exhibition ('Journey of an Artist') which made its début this month in the church there.
My first try at journalling (a 'log-book') is in the suitcase. (Leaf through the log-book on my facebook page.) This has started something for me. Possibly a reconciliation between working intuitively with visuals, my yen to publish and my 'written out' status as a ex-writer. (I confess I do write a column for the quarterly SANQG newsletter - honoured to be asked.)
I think my most powerful 2021 moment is the 'I am not you' double page in the suitcase 'log book' journal. For me, it encapsulates a deep unease with the invasiveness of 'picture-taking' and cultural appropriation etc etc. Part of the suitcase challenge was to use (as a starting point) a Willem Kriel photo - in my case, a woman with fire in her eyes and a bundle of wood on her head. I considered it disrespectful (because of my 'different-ness') to speak for or about the fierce person pictured. Instead, I engaged with the idea of the baggage we carry in/on our heads. (All is explained in the log-book.)
I think my best art experience of the year was entering the huge church in Nieu Bethesda and being whooshed by energy coming off the 'congregation' - 100 quilts, borrowed and displayed by Antoinette and her team. A reminder that the work has a life of its own. It resonates with other work and other audiences.
I have promised myself I will set free more ideas and contribute to more shows in 2022.
Corina Lemmer
My best fibre art news this year is that the Tatham bought the work I had on the Fibreworks exhibition earlier this year. It is a landscape of harvested fields made from khaki clothing I collected from farmers and farmworkers. My friend Ngoneni Kubheka framed it with white beadwork, thus joining me in praying for healing of our land on many levels. The title "Two Wrongs" refer to Two wrongs that don't make a right if land is taken from its owners repeatedly in history, but I see the two wrongs as 1) The reasonable voice is not being heard in the land- nor the echo friendly farming debate and 2) Ignoring the facts of agriculture's contribution to our economy and job creation.
Odette Tolksdorf
Exhibitions I took part in this year:
The Threads That Binds Us - The Viewing Room, Pretoria
Out of the Blue - GFI Gallery, Port Elizabeth.
In January I exhibited several works in a one-day exhibition at the Lifestyle Gallery in Ballito to promote the Durban Saunter https://www.thesaunter.co.za/
My work Red Riverscape was sold in July and the initial enquiry came through the Fibreworks website. The buyer lives in Cape Town and bought the work for his home in the Karoo. He sent me photos of the framed work in situ looking very happy on a beautiful old stone wall and said it was 'quietly imposing'.
World Quilt Competition, USA, suspended indefinitely
I've had sad news from Mancuso Show Management about a difficult decision they have made: "For many years, the World Quilt Competition has been a highlight of Mancuso Show Management's New England quilt show and the shows' tour thereafter. However, it seems that the pandemic has changed not only the way business operates, it has also caused a tremendous increase in shipping and other expenses. For this reason we are suspending the World Quilt Competition for an indefinite amount of time."
I have been the South African co-ordinator of the annual World Quilt Competition in the USA since 2001. It has been a privilege for me to see some of the best quilts in South Africa for the past 20 years and to organise the shipping for them to be exhibited in the USA.
Odette Tolksdorf
Tribute to Jutta Faulds:
There were a number of fond tributes to Jutta on WhatsApp so we decided to incorporate some of them here, again for our records. So much important communication gets lost in the deep chasm of cyberspace. Here are some excerpts from WhatsApp:
Sally ... Jutta inspired so many people with her gorgeous creations and is responsible for encouraging so many of us to push the boundaries of traditional textile work…her larger than life personality will leave a lasting effect upon the fibe art world.
Sheila ... she was indeed a legend who helped to put textile art on the map in this country.
Kim ... a trailblazer in fibre art.
Gina ... her legacy continues to thread itself through our fabric of life.
Sue ... I visited at the end she was amazingly accepting and comfortable where she was at. She wasn't lonely. She … lay in bed reading, drawing, coloring and making mandalas to the end … She had an incredibly strong mind and was able to figure a way of getting around all her problems… would love everyone to keep pushing boundaries…
Corina ... what I learnt from Jutta was that the process of art making was the most important thing
Annette ... A fierce warrior until the end. Her independence of spirit was to be admired. Outspoken, direct and in her own mind just being honest.
Celia ... I am extremely sad, an icon has passed… I loved her strong character and free spirited ways… she was sometimes very outspoken, but remarkable witty too. Her competence in various media was impressive. There were no recipes or one-liners in her book… I am grateful to have spent many inspiring days and nights in her company… Hopefully her remaining works will be taken up in a collection worthy of her talent
Sarojani and Leonie ... Sarojani called Leonie who said she will light a candle. Leonie remarked that Jutta had had a great influence on her and her artistic career
Jeanette Gilks ... Jutta talked to me a lot about little succulents and Sue Physick indigenous gardens. I walk around my garden and feel them in my bones. The sense of legacy is helpful. Perhaps they feel it too.
Pru ... she was kind. As a senior student she and Bruce would often invite us to her home for delicious meals...
Helga Beaumont ... Jutta shared some of her Mandalas with me so I attach them to this newsletter
Take care, keep safe.
Jeanette and Helga
