Showing at:
Wobblybridge Art Gallery
92 Camden Road,
Tunbridge Wells,
Kent TN1 2QP

Read more about the Photographic Exhibition

In 2008, a chance encounter at West Dean College inspired the beginnings of a collaboration between artists Anne Kelly and Cas Holmes – an ongoing project called ‘Resonant Textiles’. They hold workshops in each other’s studios as a means to cross-fertilise ideas and practice and as a means to counteract the artist’s greatest enemy at times – isolation. They share ideas and development days, drawing and ideas, visiting exhibitions and gathering resources. Cross exchange is achieved also by email, sharing resources and developing new works for exhibition.

As the collaboration has progressed the artists have continued to develop work for both gallery and non-gallery spaces. They like to use discarded items, waste material no longer considered useful. Their work is informed by personal experience, places visited, the local landscape, old and forgotten textiles. Recycled materials and waste have a history and this is the focus for the work. Fabrics, found objects and papers are exchanged, broken down, torn, and cut, and then re-assembled to create new textiles from old. Fragments and layers mark the passing of time, the rituals of making (cutting paper, gathering materials, machining, sewing) acting as part of the narrative of the work. The environmental impact of producing work from waste in recessionary times in an artistic context is explored.

They have exhibited together over the past two years in public and private spaces in and around the south east of England, in Farnham, Milton Keynes, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells. Their work is complementary in subject matter and scale and has been favourably reviewed in ‘Embroidery’ magazine and in several blogs.

Nature is everywhere apparent in both artists’ work: finely machine-stitched drawings of birds, insects and elegant tall-stemmed plants, wild and cultivated, as well as pages from plant and bird books embedded in stitchery. The long panels of their ‘Garden Path’ series also combine in a painterly way, in their verticality and colour – soft lilacs and greens echo each other from one long panel to the next. This orderliness, gentleness of colour and delicacy of drawing runs through the whole show. Janet Sturge, October 2010

They have been documenting the process as it has evolved, looking in particular at the artist’s working practice and how artists continue to develop the creative process through practical making processes. Their work has also focussed on the environmental imperative, the artist’s link with re-used materials and relationship with the environment. They have also recorded the narrative on the collaborative process and what happened during the exchange. Finally, they review their exhibitions, what was produced, what they can learn from the work.

Both artists feel that their experience in education is a valuable component of their collaboration and feeds a larger purpose, passing on their experience and skills to their students.

The exhibition starts on the 5th April and contiues until the 16th April.
Opening times: Tues to Fri 10am – 5pm – Sat 10am – 4pm

Find out more here

Kicking off the season is Anne Kelly and Cas Holmes with their ‘Domestic Mapping’ exhibition – Resonant Textiles Collaboration. The show starts on the 5th April and continues until the Saturday 16th April 2011.

Find out more about this fantastic show here

Find out more here http://popasylum.tumblr.com/

A great show and a must see.