This is not an orange.

It may look, taste, feel, smell like an orange - but it is in fact a piece of art, and previously on display at Tate Britain.  It is not often that galleries suggest you take a piece of art they have on display home, and when I visited I have to say I did not have the nerve to do so, but my friend did and gave the "art" to me. The exhibition is Conceptual Art in Britain 1964-1979.  For many people conceptual art is quite baffling but really it is about questioning what art is - a question famously asked by Marcel Duchamp when he tried to exhibit Fountain (which everyone thought was just a urinal) - a so called "found object".

So what has this to do with textiles?  Well it reminds me that despite all the decades of discussion, with many now agreeing that something is art if an artist says it is, there are still many who do not include embroidery and textile art as fine art.  Despite this there are plenty of textile pieces, even embroidered ones, in the major modern art galleries.

It did not help that in the 18th century the Royal Academy banned "fancy work" from their exhibitions - but even though there was at least one embroidered piece in last year's Summer Exhibition, most embroiderers are still nervous of submitting their work to this open show.  Now they must love textile art as the Royal Academy has wrapped their building in a fabric installation by artist Yinke Shonibare - a work titled Family Album.  (It is called a tapestry but I think it is more likely to be a printed art work, but I have yet to see it in real life).

Tomorrow sees the opening of a brand new exhibition at the Foundling Museum - called Found. Curated by Cornelia Parker, the list of other participating artists is impressive and I am looking forward to seeing what they have found - and also hearing about the stories behind their work.  I am particularly interested to find out if there are any textiles - watch this space.

Found - opens at the Foundling Museum in London, on Friday 27 May 2016 and continues until 4 September 2016.

Conceptual Art in Britain 1964-1979 continues at Tate Britain in London until 29 August 2016.

The Royal Academy Summer Show opens 13 June and continues until 21 August 2016.

It's Surreal!

Essay writing is taking over my time at the moment as I am in the last stages of my OU degree.  With no time to think about my blog, I thought instead I would just post some images of one of the pieces I am working on - which perhaps unsurprisingly includes rather a lot of textiles

The Angel of Anarchy (1936-40), is by Eileen Agar (1899-1991), and the second of two versions - the first one very different and going missing in c. 1937.  I have had to read about Surrealism and discovered that it is more interesting than I thought.  I have also learnt a lot about Agar, who knew Dali and Picasso, and had a short affair with the artist Paul Nash.  She led a very colourful life and there are all sorts of anecdotes about her life including the fact that her father sent her to art school in a Rolls Royce - she made the driver drop her off down the road so her fellow students didn't see it.  

The artwork itself is at Tate Britain as part of its permanent collection.  I walked past it many times before I decided to use it in my final work and it reminds me that once you know a little about something you want to know more.  

Mesmerising movements

Visiting Tate Britain's library this week I caught Pablo Bronstein's latest commission Historical Dances in an Antique Setting.  Part installation, part performance, it showed that you do not have to have elaborate costumes to create a work of striking elegance.

The dancers movements are based on the idea of sprezzatura, (it means studied carelessness) - something often found in Renaissance and Baroque art.   The facades at either end of the gallery are images of the main facade at Millbank and the Clore facade.  It is all about fragments and falsifying history.

The dancers move continuously between three spaces - sometimes they follow the lines on the floor and sometimes they don't.  Sometimes they post individually and at other times they mirror or work together as a group.  Occasionally one dancer will move and another will replace them.  All of them wore the same costume - red shirt, black tights and enormous beaded jewellery.  The tights mean that you can really see the positioning of their legs but the thing I found most fascinating was their hands - limp wrists, curled fingers, occasionally fluttering movements.  

It is hard to explain why but the whole effect I found quite fascinating and mesmerising.  

The work will be on display until 9 October 2016.

Bound for the library

If I had to choose a theme for the week, it would be "books and libraries", not just because I am in the middle of reading and researching an essay for my art history studies, but also because by the end of this week I will have visited four different libraries.

At the beginning of the week, visiting friends, we found ourselves amongst the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford (the first library dates from 1320).  Although we could not go inside the Radcliffe Camera (pictured above - built 1749) we did have a conversation as to why it was called a "camera".  I have since discovered there is a scholarly reason as the word means "room" in Latin so appropriate for a reading room for scholars.  We could however visit the newest Weston Library, only opened in 2015.  As many modern libraries do, it has a coffee shop and an exhibition space.  As well as an interesting exhibition on Shakespeare (Shakespeare's Dead - continues until 18 September 2016), there is a selection of Bodleian Treasurers, including a beautifully bound embroidered bible.  Known as The Geneva Bible it was once given as a gift to Elizabeth I as a new year gift in 1583-4.  

My second library this week is my own local library - I think the fact that it is also the local school library means that it is safe from council cuts.  Sadly it is not large enough to allow for much browsing as each section is rather limited.  However I love the fact I can order books on line and then pick them up to borrow.  I have used their free Ancestry access in the past too - a very useful resource.  

Today I visited Chelmsford Library (see below), where my local Embroiderer's Guild branch is holding it's anniversary exhibition Stitch by Stitch.  It was a good chance to catch up with members past and present and we had visitors from Scotland and Prague.  There are some really stunning pieces of work including some amazing stumpwork - but also felting, beading, patchwork. I was a bit late delivering my work so it is up, but missing its label.  I was just happy I was able to support the exhibition.  The exhibition is open at the library until the end of May.

Tomorrow I am booked to my fourth library of the week - the British Library.  A meeting at lunch time in town means I can spend the morning with books already ordered for my OU research.  Although I won't have time to visit tomorrow, it too has a "treasurers" section that is free to visit at any time (and a cafe), as well as its paid exhibition area.  Of course most books involve some stitch  in the binding (apart from modern glued bindings and some rolled books).  Much old paper also comes from rags so might be considered textile too.

So despite a week with my head in books, it could be said that it has been quite a textile related week too.