CLOTH & MEMORY

Textile Exhibition

SALTS MILL, SALTAIRE, WEST YORKSHIRE

until November 3rd

Sue has just been to see this wonderful exhibition and urges all to go and see it before it closes on Sunday.

23 international artists have responded to an exceptional space, the original spinning room, with some remarkable work ranging from textile based installations to iPad drawings by local people who worked at the mill.

Caroline Bartlett's stunning installation comprises of a series of embroidery hoops with stretched woollen  cloth in which porcelain roundels impressed with stitching have been  incorporated.

Reece Clements felt and mixed media hangings are a direct response to the texture and architecture of Saltaire. Pin striped fabric lengths with laser drawn images have been trapped within the needle punched felt lengths.

Other artists have used knitted, woven and stretched threads to explore the physical space, memories and Saltaire's environment.  The imaginative use of materials combined with a high standard of craft making skills makes this a visually stunning exhibition in an amazing space.  Try not to miss it!                    Sue

Marc Chagall

TATE LIVERPOOL

CHAGALL - Modern Master



This is an amazing exhibition which focuses on the work of Marc Chagall ( 1887 - 1985 ) during his time in Paris before World War I and the years he spent in his native Russia ( 1914 - 1922 )

The exhibition is made up of a range of brightly coloured semi abstract paintings and beautifully executed pen and ink drawings and watercolours  which incorporate images from his early life in Russia as a Hasidic Jew.

The early paintings show Chagall's brilliance in using colour and a highly personal visual language - with  themes such as love, and suffering alongside self-portraits and images of peasants, music and the theatre.  These recurring themes appear constantly throughout his long career, in fact the last room in the exhibition shows the original stunning large murals which Chagall was commissioned to produce for the State Jewish Chamber Theatre in 1920, 

The quality of drawing, composition, sensitive use of colour and imagery of these murals leave you in awe as you look onto the vast canvases which the Tate have hung specially in a designated space, replicating the original theatre space.

The exhibition closes on October 6th 2013 but if you don't get to see it, look at the Tate's website

www.tate.org.uk/Liverpool or you can see a Chagall and Soutine alongside their contemporaries of the School of Paris at the Manchester Jewish Museum until November 24th  www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com                                                           Sue