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CONTENTS INDULGE textiles to buy, collect or simply admire 78 SHOP TALK Jo Pott Mercers by Jane Audas, photographs by Stephen Heaton 96 SWATCH Fabourite Fabric no52 Sacred Lotus Silk by Sarah Jane Downing, illustrated by Katrin Coetzer GLOBAL textiles from around the world 72 WEAVERS OF THE CLOUDS Textile hunting in Peru by Hilary Simon, photographs by Max Milligan 30 COLOURFUL CREATION Carme Genesis at L’ex chiesa dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo, Bresica, Italy by Laura Heeks 64 RED CARPET TREATMENT The work of Märta Måås-Fjetterström by Jeffrey Head ANECDOTE textiles that touch our lives 14 CALLING ALL SPINNERS Saints in stitch by Sarah Jane Downing, illustrations by Emmanuel Pierre 18 SEE YOU IN CHURCH The Broderers of St Paul’s Cathedral by Patricia Cleveland-Peck, photographs by Claudia Brooks 21HABIT-FORMING Matisse’s vestments for the Dominican Chapel of the Rosary at Vence by Judith Mottram 26SPINNING A YARN Margaret Atwood’s tales of textiles by Marte Storbråten Ytterbøe, illustrated by Lauren DiCioccio photograph by Pari Dukavic 34 OVER THE RAINBOW The art of Chiachio & Giannone by Susan T. Avila 58 BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL Dom Robert’s woven prayers by Sophie Guérin Gasc ATTIRE critical reporting of fashion trends 10 HEAVEN SENT A-muse-ing designs for goddess gowns by Kate Cavendish 38CHILDS PLAY The Egyptian children’s tapestries by Jeri Lynn Chandler. INDUSTRY from craft to commerce 42 THE TALK OF THE TWEED The sheep, the marsh and the Medieval churches in Kent by Ann Martin, photographs by Bruce Hemming 54PUPPET SHOW Susie Vickery’s toy boy by Liz Hoggard COHABIT stunning interiors beautifully photographed 68 AT LIBERTY Liberty in Sweden: Tjolöholm Castle by Jessica Hemmings OVER THE RAINBOW The art of Chiachio & Giannone SELVEDGE 34 Left; Familia en la Fontana di Trevi, 2012, Hand embroidery with cotton thread on fabric, 110 x170cm Right; Picos Gemelos, 2017, Handmade embroidery with cotton and metallic threads, applique and pompoms on blanket, 160 x 215cm Chiachio & Giannone refer to themselves as ‘one artist with two heads and four hands.’ Their textile paintings challenge the heteronormative codes in society, especially the concept of family, while simultaneously delighting the viewer with humor, colour, and exquisite handwork. In 2003, the painters, Leo Chiachio and Daniel Giannone, began a collaborative partnership in life and work in their home city of Buenos Aires. At that time the model Argentine family did not include two gay men and a dog. It wasn’t until 2010 that Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalise same sex marriage, and Chiachio & Giannone addressed the issue by embroidering a series of family portraits, placing themselves and their beloved dog, Pioline, within a series of tableaux. They represent themselves as ‘others’ masking (or possibly revealing) their true selves in a composition reminiscent of traditional family portraits. The amusing and highly detailed pictures depict Leo and Daniel as various characters including Guarani Indians, geishas, Chinese babies, Day of the Dead skeletons, and even animals as they broaden the discourse on identity and family. Discarding the notion that family is a group related by blood or created through marriage between a man and a woman, Chiachio & Giannone expand the concept by paying homage to brethren LGBTQ+ who metaphorically share their DNA as well as other artists who typically work outside the classic white heterosexual SELVEDGE 35 p34-35 CHILDS PLAY The Egyptian children’s tapestries In 1952 Harrania, a small Coptic village on the road between Cairo and the great pyramids was indistinguishable from any other rural village along the Nile. That was before a remarkable man established a small tapestry studio in the village and taught a group of young children to weave. No one but Ramses Wissa Wassef, the freethinking architect and educator who set the simple social experiment in motion, imagined where the first group of students would take the ancient tradition – and art – of weaving. But today the result of his vision is clear: a unique collection of tapestries, exhibited and collected worldwide, that express the richness of Egyptian village life. Wissa Wassef opened the Harrania studio on the premise that all of us are born with innate creative instinct that is suppressed by conformist and abstract educational systems. He believed that ‘every human being was born an artist but that their gift could be brought out only if artistic creation was encouraged by the practicing of a craft from early childhood.’ In his book, Woven by Hand, Wissa Wassef wrote, ‘It would be very hard to neutralise the various influences—not just the gadgets, magazines, films and so on, that encroach on so much of a child’s emotional life, but above all the educational system of today, which is caught up in a set of all-powerful routines...It pushes children towards a mindless universal conformism.’ Wissa Wassef knew very little about weaving tapestries when the experiment began but believed the craft provided the right balance of manual work and artistic creation. ‘I saw it as a way of starting the children off on an activity that involved a union of body and soul. Drawing, painting and modelling are not craftsman’s trades, while mosaic work, ceramics, wood, stone and metalwork do not present the same balance between art and craft. I felt that tapestry making would provide the happy medium for the experiment I was planning.’ SELVEDGE 38 colour. To see it, brings to mind the quote from the painter Harold Speed, ‘For colour is one of the most rapturous truths that can be revealed to man’. Quintessenz expand; ‘Space, form and colour are the key ingredients – we create blank forms that we then use as the ground for our colours.’ They continue; ‘Our mural works or installations are always inspired by their environment. 95% of our installations are site specific, that means we see and find the space before the work is created. So we scan the information, it’s architectural properties. Based on this research our creative process starts, and goes on until we find the right shape, volume and colour.’ Quintessenz believe that bringing art and colour into new places can change that environment into something more positive. Perhaps then the work could be said to lift people’s perceptions of spaces that might ordinarily not move them emotionally or spiritually? Quintessenz create art that brings pause to our busy lives, bringing colour into monochrome cities, and also reminds us of the difference it makes to see an artwork in real life. This real experience, the version of the world that we can take back when we put down our screens, is close to sacred today. As Quintessence explain; ‘Everyone can be an artist. Also in daily life – even in things like cooking. It helps us get away from learned rules and it brings us to new paths. Creation is one of the highest goods we have in our world – and yes – it is sacred.’ Laura Heeks SELVEDGE 32 THE TALK OF THE TWEED The sheep, the marsh and the Medieval churches in Kent Tweed can be seen as a woven embodiment of the British landscape. The familiar herringbone pattern shown in many colours, echoing wild, barren terrain, and windswept coastline. So it’s no surprise that another homegrown tweed has emerged from our shores, but perhaps the origins of this particular fabric, the hedgerows of southeast England, are unexpected. In Romney Marsh, Kent, sheep have grazed the land for hundreds of years. Here, Romney wool is being spun into two-ply worsted yarns to produce Romney Tweed, an attractive new cloth for traditional apparel. Pat Alston, the visionary behind Romney Tweed, is on a mission to improve prospects on the Marsh since the decommissioning of two power stations at Dungeness, and a subsequent rise in unemployment in the area. Established as a social enterprise, with the aim of using Romney wool to make tweed cloth, Romney Tweed exists with a view to help young people (particularly those aged between 18 and 24) acquire skills and jobs. The area has a rich sheep farming tradition, and a large sheep population, so when a local councillor questioned why there wasn’t a mill in Romney Marsh, Pat had a brainwave - to create a Romney Marsh tweed, using the wool from Romney sheep. At the time local farmers were sending wool elsewhere to be cleaned, spun and woven. When a local spinner decided to show what could be made from Romney wool in 2011, the journey was well underway. Aside from expected financial limitations, Pat’s biggest challenge was to prove that Romney wool could be used for apparel. She identified there was space and demand in the market for an English tweed brand but traditionally Romney wool had been used for carpets, and to create a quality, soft-handle cloth from a short fleece would be technically complex. According to the The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook, by Deb Robson and Carol Ekarius, “Romney is the fleece most likely to be voted president of the Wool High School senior class. It can’t do everything, but it is an all-around good citizen and extremely versatile, with personality and charisma… Because Romney are now found in many geographic regions, breeders can closely adapt their flocks to the environments. The wool reflects some of these environmental factors, but the fiber characteristics are similar enough for textile workers purposes.” With a grant from The Worshipful Company of Drapers in hand and much experimentation by a team of enthusiastic volunteers, who dyed yarn, spent hours weaving on home looms, and created patterns for samples, the end result was an eminently wearable fabric - 31 microns in diameter with a beautiful lustre. At the end of August 2014 a sample of 74 menswear designs in one ten-metre length, created by Huddersfield weaver Steven Hirst, was seen by cloth merchants Dugdale Brothers who were so impressed with the fabric’s handle that they ordered 15 designs on the spot. This was a pleasant but unexpected result, leaving Pat to phone around the local farmers to ask if their sheep had been shorn yet. Despite claiming to have no ‘commercial experience’, Pat’s background as a diplomatic spouse, leaves her well suited to drive this project forward. One of her influential friends, a Savile Row tailor, has proven particularly useful in establishing her connections within manufacturing. An introduction to textiles expert Gordon Kaye, Former Managing Director of Taylor and Lodge, gave Romney Tweed access to commercial production, including everything from fleece sorting and scouring at Curtis Wool Direct in Bingley, spinning at Spectrum Yarns in Huddersfield, dying at Paint Box Textiles in Liversedge, to weaving at C&J Antich and finishing at WT Johnson, both in Huddersfield. Education plays a key part in Romney Tweed’s commitment to both the future of the business and the community where jobs will be created. An early partnership with London’s Central Saint Martins College in 2014 brought a group of second year textiles students to the Marsh, with the task of using Romney Tweed for their annual project. The students visited Kent Wool Growers in Ashford, where the fleeces are graded, and a Marsh farm, to meet a flock of Romney sheep face to face. Following their research trip the students designed six samples with a particular man in mind, ranging from David Beckham to Toad of Toad Hall. These samples were critiqued with three winning designs awarded £500 each. Cultivating an interest in weaving amongst SELVEDGE 42 SELVEDGE 39 p38-39 TITLE Sub head SELVEDGE 33 p32-33 TITLE Sub head SELVEDGE 43 p42-43 SELVEDGE 4
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PUPPET SHOW TITLE Sub head Susie Vickery’s toy boy Susie Vickery is introducing the new man in her life - 18th century French botanist, JacquesJulien Houtou de Labillardière. ‘He feels almost real to me,’ she laughs, displaying her puppet in his intricately embroidered clothing, made from antique linen, cotton and silk. De Labillardière is a metre tall. His 19th century waistcoat is embroidered with the Western Australian bluebell (billardièra fusiformi) created using a slate frame; while his tailcoat came from an antique piece of Lao weaving. ‘It did feel like a sacrifice but now it’s taken on a life of its own,’ says Vickery, who has been using up all the beautiful fabric she has been hoarding for years. The botanist’s slippers are made from Hmong cutwork pieces bought in Kathmandu 18 years ago. She decorated them with metalwork crowns bought at the Hand & Lock conference a few years ago. A half-scale male dress stand displays a change of outfit. His orange Banyan (dressing gown) is made from an antique Burmese Chin lungi given to Vickery by friends in Myanmar when she was working there. The lining is an old silk sari from India and the collar and cuffs are made from an antique Parsi sari border. De Labillardière was a botanist on a French expedition to Oceania in 1792 (two years after the French Revolution started), travelling on the ship Recherche, which visited Vickery’s home state of Western Australia. And now, thanks to Vickery, de Labillardière is returning to Australia 227 years after landing there. SELVEDGE 54 The project has allowed Vickery to combine all her favourite things - costume making, puppets, embroidery, men’s tailoring, and animation. Vickery, who specialises in embroidered textile art, is an expert in 19th century men’s tailoring. She worked as a costumier for theatre and film in Australia and the UK for 20 years. When her British husband got a job in Nepal in the 1990s, she worked with women’s handicraft groups there. She decided to combine her twin passions - development work and fine art embroidery and to study embroidered textiles by distance learning, graduating from London Middlesex University in 2009. Then in 2016, after 20 years in South Asia, she and her husband bought a house in Fremantle, Western Australia, so she could spend more time with her elderly mother. She also started teaching an annual masterclass in 19th century men’s tailoring at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne. Keen to work more in 3D, she began making a puppet. ‘I have always tried to get movement into my embroideries with animation and automata. I want them to be more than static images on the wall. One of my favourite things was the problem solving, working out how to achieve something technical and learning all sorts of new skills.’ To create de Labillardière she devoured puppetry and dollmaking websites, researching joints, styles and making techniques. She set herself the challenge that her puppet would be embroidered, wear fabulous 19th SELVEDGE 55 p54-55 LIFE’S RICH TAPESTRY Revisiting tapestry in post-WWII Poland In the wake of WWII, the nascent Polish communist government saw in pre-WWI artisan cooperatives a model for post-war economic development consistent with its anti-capitalist stance and aligned with its nation-building goals. Under the auspices of an agency called Cepelia— an acronym for the Centre of Folk and Artistic Industry—the government organised a nationwide network of artisan cooperatives charged with producing ‘folkloric’ and ‘artistic’ work. To inform the folkloric work, Cepelia engaged ethnographers and artists-as-ethnographers (especially in the early years, 1949-1956) to document rural textile practices. This ethnography then shaped the production of so-called ‘folkloric’ textiles inspired by vernacular cultural traditions. Cepelia marketed and sold both folkloric and artistic work via a nationwide network of retail outlets where they became visual markers of an emerging urban Polish middle class and served as souvenirs that visitors might purchase as momentos of their experience of Poland. Cepelia also exported these same sorts of blankets, kilims and tapestries to retail outlets in the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands, and beyond. Emboldened by new international connections Cepelia facilitated, many Polish textile artists joined a vanguard of fibre artists who entered works that were accepted in the Lausaunne International Tapestry Biennials (1962-1995), and who travelled internationally to attend the openings of fibre art exhibitions and give artist talks and demonstrations at Cepelia’s retail stores. Daniel Stone, in his 2009 article, ‘Cepelia and Folk Arts Industries in Poland, 1949-1956’, published in The Polish Review characterised as ‘craft activists’ the people at Cepelia who supported Polish artists creating place-based textiles. These artists were imaginatively responding to post-WWII material constraints, effectively evading the ideological structures of communist-dictated socialist realism, and side-stepping modernist art debates. It appears that Polish artists often chose to work within and for Cepelia to turn centralised governmental efforts to promote a nationalist Polish identity rooted in so-called ‘folk’ traditions to their own advantage. In the face of the terrible destruction that WWII wrought, textile artists’ experiments with non-traditional materials, three dimensional forms, and visual iconographies that alternately referenced rural crafts, pre-partitioned Poland, and 19th century landscape painting, all participated in a process of rebuilding their country and reconstructing a Polish experience of national identity that was not communist and not especially modernist. Cepelia greatly facilitated this tenaciously hopeful process that craft activists and artists undertook after WWII to constitute an art community that enlivened and sustained an under-the-radar, politically charged art movement that continually revisited what it meant to be Polish under communism. At the micro and macro levels Cepelia forged an arts and crafts infrastructure that supported a wide range of place-based artmaking on a relatively large scale that ultimately made possible the innovations now associated with the late 20th century school of Polish tapestry. anowska aria Rom cour tesy of M to pho SELVEDGE 46 J a n e P r z y bys z TITLE Sub head SELVEDGE 47 p46-47 The Fabric of Modernity Biennial, 1983), and the environment (15th Biennial, 1992), works moved off the wall and beyond the institutional container of the museum – as happens in many internationally curated Biennials – into environmental and urban space. Lausanne became a city filled with flags, sacks, and ropes suspended throughout its parks and gardens. The achievements of the Lausanne International Tapestry Biennials are significant, particularly in terms of the visibility of textile works (loaning works to international exhibitions), and the challenge to conventional definitions of tapestry by giving opportunities to artists who demonstrated the creativity that could result from material invention and technical innovation. From 1995 onwards exciting initiatives were developing in China. Professor Lin Lecheng, from the Academy of Arts & Design at the Tsinghua University in Beijing, was so disappointed at not being able to see a Lausanne Biennial when he visited in 1996, that he decided to establish one in China. His intention was to maintain the spirit of an international show of modern and contemporary textile art, as well as expressing appreciation and recognition of the historical and cultural significance of Lausanne. Meanwhile, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, the textile exhibitions Fiber Visions (2013) and Weaving and We (2016) offer further examples of the impact of Lausanne on material practices and emerging fibre artists. Janis Jefferies This winter the Kunsthalle Munich presents a spectacular exhibition of tapestries designed by great artists of the 20th century, and produced by the historic tapestry factories Beauvais, Aubusson, and the Manufacture des Gobelins, as well as Savonnerie, the most prestigious European manufactory of knotted-pile carpets. Roger Diederen, Director of Kunsthalle Munich and curator of The Fabric of Modernity. Matisse,  Picasso, Miró...and the French Tapestry, introduces the exhibition. The grand art of tapestries has always been associated with power and spectacle. In this exhibition this becomes evident in two rather startling tapestries commissioned by the Nazis. Göring was a huge admirer of the Gobelins produced in France, and the minute Paris was occupied, he commissioned enormous tapestries to adorn his private residence ‘Carinhall’, outside Berlin. One, only half finished, is seven metres high and was to adorn his library, showing the terrestrial globe surrounded by allegorical figures. It is the desire to rule the world as expressed in a tapestry. Another, destined for Ribbentrop's ministry, shows three oxen pulling a Roman carriage with a goddess of fertility holding a standard with a swastika. Three and a half kilos of gold were used in the form of gold thread. They look slightly ridiculous, especially as the designer Piener was not the greatest of painters, but they demonstrate how in the 20th century tapestries still were seen by some as ideal means of displaying power. But SELVEDGE 52 i l i p p e S éber t : P h t o P r a c u s a , P h o i l i e r n a t i o n a l © : M o b t o , P h o 2 019 Ku n s t , B o n n i l d B, V G i r ó MS u c c e s s i o i l i e r n a t i o n a l © M o b l l e c t i o n already in the 1930, someone like Jean Lurçat introduced a novel approach towards the medium. He was a communist and active in the resistance, thus, his fascination for tapestries was more about continuing the great French craftsmanship tradition that weavers had developed since the Middle Ages. Later, an architect like Le Corbusier saw in tapestries a natural extension of the physical spaces he designed. After WWII, grand narrative cycles in tapestry form become rare and for true modernists, making tapestries was more about continuing a grand design tradition than about the display of power and wealth. But still to this day, the Elysée Palace, seat of the French president, is being adorned with tapestries and the French government supports the Gobelins manufactory by steadily commissioning new tapestries in order to keep the tradition alive. Modernist artists, whenever they used tapestry, understood the value of artistry and craftsmanship. The outright historicist or neoBaroque tradition as seen in a Post-World War I tapestry is abandoned after 1945, and from then on, artists rediscovered the textile art form with its own possibilities and challenges. The extremely time-consuming production is, of course, one of these challenges, but, at the same time, also one of its great charms. Roger Diederen The Fabric of Modernity: Matisse, Picasso, Miró … and French Tapestries is at Kunsthalle Munich until 8 March 2020 www.kunsthalle-muc.de Co SELVEDGE 53 Below; Joan Miró (1893–1983) Composition No.1,Woman at the mirror, 1966, Manufacture des Gobelins 306 455cm, wool p52-53 . S a rd a . . J L , Fr a n c e P h , S o r è z e M u s e u m Ro b e r t D o m l l e c t i o n C a l c a t A b b ey C o E n © SELVEDGE 61 p60-61 CONCEPT textiles in fine art 46 LIFE'S RICH TAPESTRY Revisiting tapestry in post-WWII Poland by Jane Przybysz. Magdalena Abakanowicz by Mary Jane Jacobs, The Lausanne International Tapestry Biennials by Janis Jefferies The Fabric of Modernity by Roger Diederen EVENTS dates for your diary 8-15 August 2020, Clarissa Hulse, Botanical Prints, Chateau Dumas, France 8-15 August 2020, Mandy Pattullo, Recycle, Repair and Reconsider, Chateau Dumas, France 22-29 August 2020, Susie Vickery, Making Historic French Mannequins, Chateau Dumas, France 22-29 August 2020, Emily Jo Gibbs, Illustrative pictures, Chateau Dumas, France PRIZES THIS ISSUE A gorgeous wash bag made from Liberty Tana Lawn, worth £25.95 www.alicecaroline.com Vedat Demiralp runner, worth £340 www.cobanrugs.com Madder Studio classic Nuno pillow, worth £270 www.maddastudio.com Throw from Romney Marsh Wool, worth £70 www.romneymarshwools.co.uk INFORM the latest news, reviews and exhibition listings 03 BIAS /CONTRIBUTORS A letter from the founder, Polly Leonard 07 NEWS TEXTO A global gathering for textile lovers, the Zay Initiative, Artesanías de Colombia, the Soft World, Sara Brennan, Dutzi 84 READ The Pocket, a Hidden History of Women’s Lives 16601900 by Barbara Burman and Ariane Fennetaux, Yale University Press, 2020 reviewed by Sarah Jane Downing. Threads Around The World: From Arabian Weaving to Batik in Zimbabwe, by Deb Brandon, Schiffer Publishing, reviewed by Sonia Ashmore 86 VIEW Vera Paints a Scarf: The Art and Design of Vera Neumann, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, unil 26 January 2020 www. madmuseum.org reviewed by Magali An Berthon, Tim Walker: Wonderful Things, V&A Museum, London, until 8 March 2020 www.vam.ac.uk reviewed by Dani Trew. Zandra Rhodes; 50 Years of Fabulous, Fashion and Textile Museum, London until 26 January 2020 reviewed by Corinne Julius Weaving Beyond the Bauhaus, Art Institute of Chicago, until 17 February, 2020 www.artic.edu reviewed by JoAnn Greco 95 COMING NEXT RETHINK Picking up a new thread SELVEDGE ('selvid3) n. 1. finished differently 2. the non-fraying edge of a length of woven fabric. [: from SELF + EDGE] SELVEDGE 5

CONTENTS

INDULGE textiles to buy, collect or simply admire 78 SHOP TALK Jo Pott Mercers by Jane Audas, photographs by Stephen Heaton 96 SWATCH Fabourite Fabric no52 Sacred Lotus Silk by Sarah Jane Downing, illustrated by Katrin Coetzer GLOBAL textiles from around the world 72 WEAVERS OF THE CLOUDS Textile hunting in Peru by Hilary Simon, photographs by Max Milligan 30 COLOURFUL CREATION Carme Genesis at L’ex chiesa dei Santi Filippo e Giacomo, Bresica, Italy by Laura Heeks 64 RED CARPET TREATMENT The work of Märta Måås-Fjetterström by Jeffrey Head ANECDOTE textiles that touch our lives 14 CALLING ALL SPINNERS Saints in stitch by Sarah Jane Downing, illustrations by Emmanuel Pierre 18 SEE YOU IN CHURCH The Broderers of St Paul’s Cathedral by Patricia Cleveland-Peck, photographs by Claudia Brooks 21HABIT-FORMING Matisse’s vestments for the Dominican Chapel of the Rosary at Vence by Judith Mottram 26SPINNING A YARN Margaret Atwood’s tales of textiles by Marte Storbråten Ytterbøe, illustrated by Lauren DiCioccio photograph by Pari Dukavic 34 OVER THE RAINBOW The art of Chiachio & Giannone by Susan T. Avila 58 BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL Dom Robert’s woven prayers by Sophie Guérin Gasc ATTIRE critical reporting of fashion trends 10 HEAVEN SENT A-muse-ing designs for goddess gowns by Kate Cavendish 38CHILDS PLAY The Egyptian children’s tapestries by Jeri Lynn Chandler. INDUSTRY from craft to commerce 42 THE TALK OF THE TWEED The sheep, the marsh and the Medieval churches in Kent by Ann Martin, photographs by Bruce Hemming 54PUPPET SHOW Susie Vickery’s toy boy by Liz Hoggard COHABIT stunning interiors beautifully photographed 68 AT LIBERTY Liberty in Sweden: Tjolöholm Castle by Jessica Hemmings

OVER THE RAINBOW The art of Chiachio & Giannone

SELVEDGE 34

Left; Familia en la Fontana di Trevi, 2012, Hand embroidery with cotton thread on fabric, 110 x170cm

Right; Picos Gemelos, 2017, Handmade embroidery with cotton and metallic threads, applique and pompoms on blanket, 160 x 215cm

Chiachio & Giannone refer to themselves as ‘one artist with two heads and four hands.’ Their textile paintings challenge the heteronormative codes in society, especially the concept of family, while simultaneously delighting the viewer with humor, colour, and exquisite handwork. In 2003, the painters, Leo Chiachio and Daniel Giannone, began a collaborative partnership in life and work in their home city of Buenos Aires. At that time the model Argentine family did not include two gay men and a dog. It wasn’t until 2010 that Argentina became the first country in Latin America to legalise same sex marriage, and Chiachio & Giannone addressed the issue by embroidering a series of family portraits, placing themselves and their beloved dog, Pioline, within a series of tableaux. They represent themselves as ‘others’ masking (or possibly revealing) their true selves in a composition reminiscent of traditional family portraits. The amusing and highly detailed pictures depict Leo and Daniel as various characters including Guarani Indians, geishas, Chinese babies, Day of the Dead skeletons, and even animals as they broaden the discourse on identity and family. Discarding the notion that family is a group related by blood or created through marriage between a man and a woman, Chiachio & Giannone expand the concept by paying homage to brethren LGBTQ+ who metaphorically share their DNA as well as other artists who typically work outside the classic white heterosexual

SELVEDGE 35

p34-35

CHILDS PLAY The Egyptian children’s tapestries

In 1952 Harrania, a small Coptic village on the road between Cairo and the great pyramids was indistinguishable from any other rural village along the Nile. That was before a remarkable man established a small tapestry studio in the village and taught a group of young children to weave. No one but Ramses Wissa Wassef, the freethinking architect and educator who set the simple social experiment in motion, imagined where the first group of students would take the ancient tradition – and art – of weaving. But today the result of his vision is clear: a unique collection of tapestries, exhibited and collected worldwide, that express the richness of Egyptian village life. Wissa

Wassef opened the Harrania studio on the premise that all of us are born with innate creative instinct that is suppressed by conformist and abstract educational systems. He believed that ‘every human being was born an artist but that their gift could be brought out only if artistic creation was encouraged by the practicing of a craft from early childhood.’ In his book, Woven by Hand, Wissa Wassef wrote, ‘It would be very hard to neutralise the various influences—not just the gadgets, magazines, films and so on, that encroach on so much of a child’s emotional life, but above all the educational system of today, which is caught up in a set of all-powerful routines...It pushes children towards a mindless universal conformism.’ Wissa Wassef knew very little about weaving tapestries when the experiment began but believed the craft provided the right balance of manual work and artistic creation. ‘I saw it as a way of starting the children off on an activity that involved a union of body and soul. Drawing, painting and modelling are not craftsman’s trades, while mosaic work, ceramics, wood, stone and metalwork do not present the same balance between art and craft. I felt that tapestry making would provide the happy medium for the experiment I was planning.’

SELVEDGE 38

colour. To see it, brings to mind the quote from the painter Harold Speed, ‘For colour is one of the most rapturous truths that can be revealed to man’. Quintessenz expand; ‘Space, form and colour are the key ingredients – we create blank forms that we then use as the ground for our colours.’ They continue; ‘Our mural works or installations are always inspired by their environment. 95% of our installations are site specific, that means we see and find the space before the work is created. So we scan the information, it’s architectural properties. Based on this research our creative process starts, and goes on until we find the right shape, volume and colour.’ Quintessenz believe that bringing art and colour into new places can change that environment into something more positive. Perhaps then the work could be said to lift people’s perceptions of spaces that might ordinarily not move them emotionally or spiritually? Quintessenz create art that brings pause to our busy lives, bringing colour into monochrome cities, and also reminds us of the difference it makes to see an artwork in real life. This real experience, the version of the world that we can take back when we put down our screens, is close to sacred today. As Quintessence explain; ‘Everyone can be an artist. Also in daily life – even in things like cooking. It helps us get away from learned rules and it brings us to new paths. Creation is one of the highest goods we have in our world – and yes – it is sacred.’ Laura Heeks

SELVEDGE 32

THE TALK OF THE TWEED The sheep, the marsh and the Medieval churches in Kent

Tweed can be seen as a woven embodiment of the British landscape. The familiar herringbone pattern shown in many colours, echoing wild, barren terrain, and windswept coastline. So it’s no surprise that another homegrown tweed has emerged from our shores, but perhaps the origins of this particular fabric, the hedgerows of southeast England, are unexpected. In Romney Marsh, Kent, sheep have grazed the land for hundreds of years. Here, Romney wool is being spun into two-ply worsted yarns to produce Romney Tweed, an attractive new cloth for traditional apparel. Pat Alston, the visionary behind Romney Tweed, is on a mission to improve prospects on the Marsh since the decommissioning of two power stations at Dungeness, and a subsequent rise in unemployment in the area. Established as a social enterprise, with the aim of using Romney wool to make tweed cloth, Romney Tweed exists with a view to help young people (particularly those aged between 18 and 24) acquire skills and jobs. The area has a rich sheep farming tradition, and a large sheep population, so when a local councillor questioned why there wasn’t a mill in Romney Marsh, Pat had a brainwave - to create a Romney Marsh tweed, using the wool from Romney sheep. At the time local farmers were sending wool elsewhere to be cleaned, spun and woven. When a local spinner decided to show what could be made from Romney wool in 2011, the journey was well underway.

Aside from expected financial limitations, Pat’s biggest challenge was to prove that Romney wool could be used for apparel. She identified there was space and demand in the market for an English tweed brand but traditionally Romney wool had been used for carpets, and to create a quality, soft-handle cloth from a short fleece would be technically complex. According to the The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook, by Deb Robson and Carol Ekarius, “Romney is the fleece most likely to be voted president of the Wool High School senior class. It can’t do everything, but it is an all-around good citizen and extremely versatile, with personality and charisma… Because Romney are now found in many geographic regions, breeders can closely adapt their flocks to the environments. The wool reflects some of these environmental factors, but the fiber characteristics are similar enough for textile workers purposes.” With a grant from The Worshipful Company of Drapers in hand and much experimentation by a team of enthusiastic volunteers, who dyed yarn, spent hours weaving on home looms, and created patterns for samples, the end result was an eminently wearable fabric - 31 microns in diameter with a beautiful lustre. At the end of August 2014 a sample of 74 menswear designs in one ten-metre length, created by Huddersfield weaver Steven Hirst, was seen by cloth merchants Dugdale Brothers who were so impressed with the fabric’s handle that they ordered 15 designs on the spot. This was a pleasant but unexpected result, leaving Pat to phone around the local farmers to ask if their sheep had been shorn yet. Despite claiming to have no ‘commercial experience’, Pat’s background as a diplomatic spouse, leaves her well suited to drive this project forward. One of her influential friends, a Savile Row tailor, has proven particularly useful in establishing her connections within manufacturing. An introduction to textiles expert Gordon Kaye, Former Managing Director of Taylor and Lodge, gave Romney Tweed access to commercial production, including everything from fleece sorting and scouring at Curtis Wool Direct in Bingley, spinning at Spectrum Yarns in Huddersfield, dying at Paint Box Textiles in Liversedge, to weaving at C&J Antich and finishing at WT Johnson, both in Huddersfield. Education plays a key part in Romney Tweed’s commitment to both the future of the business and the community where jobs will be created. An early partnership with London’s Central Saint Martins College in 2014 brought a group of second year textiles students to the Marsh, with the task of using Romney Tweed for their annual project. The students visited Kent Wool Growers in Ashford, where the fleeces are graded, and a Marsh farm, to meet a flock of Romney sheep face to face. Following their research trip the students designed six samples with a particular man in mind, ranging from David Beckham to Toad of Toad Hall. These samples were critiqued with three winning designs awarded £500 each. Cultivating an interest in weaving amongst

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