Public Art Project in Progress (Sheep)

These images show the development of a current project to create a sculpture for a town centre space. Last year I was commissioned to undertake the consultation with the general public and make sure that local people had a say in the final piece. The local community decided on a sheep sculpture in stone, with a realistic/comic element and the final theme was voted on as - a shopping sheep. Later I was commissioned to design and create the final piece. Anyway the pictures show a few of the stages of the design process - from sketchbook roughs through to my maquette to it's current stage, also pictured is the life size version in clay which will be used to create the mould for the cast stone to be fabricated locally by Martin Bond.

pricked: extreme embroidery exhibition pictures

Well I didnt take many photos at the opening and when I went back the next day I was only allowed to photograph my own work in situ. But here are a few snaps anyway - and a link to a review in the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/arts/design/28embr.html

Myartpace Interview link

I'm back from New York - it was a great experience and i took pictures of the Pricked: Extreme Embroidery exhibition. Can't post images here at the moment though as my own computer is in storage till I move house. Meanwhile though, I was interviewed by myartspace - the interview is at this address:


http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2007/11/art-space-talk-morwenna-catt.html

Pricked: Extreme Embroidery

Still not having any chance to update my blog but I'm showing my Phenology Heads as part of the Pricked: Extreme Embroidery exhibition at The Museum of Arts & Design, 40 West 53rd St, New York. The show opens on the 8th November and runs until the 9th March 2008.

Please see press release below:

Samplers, table cloths, tea towels, and party dresses often spring to mind when the word “embroidery” is invoked, but the forty international artists highlighted in Pricked: Extreme Embroidery tell a very different story. Pricked is the Museum of Arts & Design’s latest exploration into how centuries-old handcraft traditions are rejuvenated in the mainstream of contemporary art and design. The artists are both men and women from 12 countries as diverse as Transylvania, Egypt, Wales, Mexico and the Netherlands, as well as the U.S. Chosen to showcase the diversity of approaches to this standard needleworking technique, the works in Pricked: Extreme Embroidery also convey powerful and personal content that ranges from subjective dreams and diaries to controversial politics in today’s world. The works are individually arresting, provocative, satirical, and humorous.
Pricked Extreme Embroidery follows the success and international acclaim of the Museum’s exhibition Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting, which premiered earlier this year at MAD and is now on an extensive tour to other art museums. Like Radical Lace, this new exhibition is poised to change the way the public views the contemporary evolution of an ancient art.
Works by artists of the caliber of Maira Kalman and Elaine Reichek are shown alongside works by emerging artists such as Andrea Deszo of Transylvania, who records aphorisms and warnings received from her Transylvania mother in a series titled “My Mother Claimed That…” In addition, works by designers such as Mattia Bonetti document the use of embroidery techniques in the sphere of design.
In addition to fibrous materials like cotton and wool, artists and designers employ the unexpected ranging from stone to digital prints to human hair and skin. A North Carolina artist, Nava Lubelski, explores the contradictory activities of spoiling and mending by stitching over spills, stains and rips she finds on tablecloths, napkins, and canvas. The artist uses canvas stretchers as her embroidery loop, and the wooden strips are often visible through the mended tears.
The artists in Pricked use embroidery as a means to reflect, both internally, and on the outside world. Dutch artist Tilleke Schwarz stitches the subconscious; dreamlike scenarios, fleeting thoughts, and imaginative imagery recorded on cloth. In Fast Machine, 2006, Benji Whalen embroiders tattoos onto a wall-mounted, stuffed arm. For the exhibition, the artist has created a large installation of hanging tattooed arms, each with imagery alluding to alternative culture and art.
The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated, full-color catalogue published by MAD that includes an essay by chief curator, David McFadden; illustrations of works by each artist, along with short biographies; and an index. For more information about ordering the catalogue, please call The Store at 212-956-3535 x157.

art for nothing - Slovenia

Art for Nothing

Square Bevkov trg in Nova Gorica

on Saturday, 29 September 2007, 11 am

The BridA Art Collective from Šempas, the Art Gallery »Mestna Galerija Nova Gorica« and SGP Gorica d.d., in collaboration with the Hoxton Square Gallery (London, UK), are organizing a special art event, ART FOR NOTHING, which will take place in the Square Bevkov trg in Nova Gorica on Saturday, 29 September 2007, 11 am.

ART FOR NOTHING is the second in a series of events that the Hoxton Square Gallery is planning to put in place throughout Europe. The first of these events was held in London in June of 2007.

On the initiative of the BridA Art Collective, the next event is to be held in Slovenia at the end of September. More than 30 artists from Slovenia, Italy, Great Britain, Ireland and Germany will gather together in the Square Bevkov trg in Nova Gorica to give away their works of art free to passers-by.

The event will mark the 10th Anniversary of the Art Gallery »Mestna galerija Nova Gorica« and the 10th Anniversary of the BridA Art Collective. The construction company SGP Gorica d.d. has established its important role in the town over the past 50 years. The company's new administration board has decided to contribute to the higher quality of life in the town by supporting this event.

The organisers are donating to the town and its inhabitants this interesting project, in which artists will be creating their works in a public place, and will be giving them away to passers-by for free. (Performances, fine art, etc.)

Altogether, there will be more than 30 participating artists from 6 countries present in the Square Bevkov trg.

Slovenia:

BridA (Sendi Mango, Tom Kerševan, Jurij Pavlica, Klemen Brun)

Gaja Zornada

Žiga Koritnik

Jernej Forbici

Helena Angelski

Jure Poša

Blaž Erzetič

Breda Čuk

Maja Zorec

Nataša Šiško

Metja Stritmar

Andrej Mivšek
Vedran Vražalić

Bojana Križanec
Jadranka Ivačič
Kristina Kompan

ARWA (group for experimental motion)

United Kingdom:

Kirsty Harris

Dawn Kolpin

Richard Maddalena

Morwenna Catt

Duncan Burnett

Lyndsay Officer

Loz Taylor

Sally Noall

Stuart Robinson

David Porter

Teresa Mills

North Ireland:

Lee Boyd

Canada:

Roxanne Brousseau-Felio

Germany:

Otto Holler

Pedi Matthies

Italy:

Katia Ceccarelli - Koshka

Marina Brumat

Marica Vicari

Denis Tomasini

Michele Lugnan

sows ears - carnival boar in progress

I started making the boars head for the carnival - still loads to do - in desperate need of fibre rods so i can get on with the 'dancing ' body part of the thing.

carnival 2007 sketches - its all deeply symbolic!

I havent posted on here for ages because I havent had time for my own work in between projects. Life isn't all rabbits and stitched mouths you know! (unfortunately). Anyway - at the moment we're (Burnett and Catt) busy working on this years Bradford Carnival Parade, themed appropriately (but not necessarily usefully) on 100 years of Bradford Lord Mayors. So with a distinct lack of miserable sketches to sling up - heres a few sketches of floats we'll be constructing - and a tongueless boar (it is deeply symbolic in Bradford!) as a kind of dancing dragon type thing. Really looking forward to making that one. We're also making some big build costumes - a very glamorous stork and a magician with golden knitting needles - knitting a new Bradford from the ashes of the old! (see him clicking his needles above)

stuffing gullible bunnies (had enough its finished!)

wrecked it, redid it - added some stitch and totally sick of it.

stuffing gullible bunnies (continued)

Bit happier with the background - need to knock some of the colour back, especially in the large figure, made a bit of a start on the left hand rabbit. Still needs alot of work.

dead cloud - (finished)

120cm x 120cm canvas