Lovely evening at Jill's Private View. Good opportunity to talk to people from the artist community in Coventry. Jill's work included a lot of stitched work on domestic linen.
I spent some time talking to Darren, who is a South African student. Darren's interpretation of the work was that it was strongly colonial. This was a total eye-opener to me. I read it as very traditional in stitch style, but quite modern in its use of found materials and joining of unconventional fabrics. Darren read Jill's work as being from the same style as his grandmother's. He's aged c35, so his parents are my age, and his grandparents would be my parents age. His grandmother migrated from the UK to South Africa as a young woman and brought her linen (probably created as part of her bottom drawer) with her. He viewed his grandparents as part of the colonising British community. We discussed a piece made from blue cotton and white crochet. He read it as colonial because the uniform of domestic servants in South Africa is made from this blue cotton. When I spoke to Jill she said it was inspired by one of the Greek islands, where the houses are painted with this blue around the basement because it is the protective colour of the evil eye.
Just shows what the difference is the reading, between the author and viewer.
Photos to follow.
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