Fibres Gone Wild
An exhibition of textile and fibre works by the Wild Fibre Artists
3 July – 2 August 2020 – (HALF GALLERY)
Wild Fibre Artists Bev Bills, Gem Congdon, Jackie Pearce, Charmian Quintrell, Lynne Radcliffe, Liz Steveson. Kaaren Temme, Yvonne Twining, Vikki Waller and Liz Yates are proud to present their 20th exhibition. They share a passion to create fibre and textile art, work quite independently but enjoy getting together to organise exhibitions to show their work.
They are a small informal group of textile and fibre artists that was initiated in 2004 by members of the Red House Group. All were interested in creating fibre and textile art and keen to exhibit with other like-minded people. Over the years various artists have joined or moved on, but a passionate group of about 10 textile and fibre artists has been maintained for over a decade.
Gallery M hosted the first exhibition of this group, under the name of ‘The Fibre Network’ in 2005. None of the participants of that first exhibition would have predicted that the group would develop and go on to present 20 exhibitions. When their 20th exhibition opens in July 2020 they will therefore be celebrating this unexpected success.
Wild Fibre Artists come from different backgrounds, and work using a variety of techniques. Bev Bills has expertise in weaving and fabric collage. Gem Congden is particularly interested in basketry and stitching fabric. Jackie Pearce often uses machine embroidery to illustrate her love of nature. Charmian Quintrell works in hand-made felt embellished with machine embroidery, incorporating mixed media. Lynne Radcliffe is renowned for her wonderful visual diary that provides inspiration for her mixed media projects. Liz Steveson creates stitched fabric collage wall hangings. Kaaren Temme specialises in tapestry weaving. Yvonne Twining is a leather worker. Vikki Waller expresses herself by creating art quilts. Liz Yates works with natural fibres and combines basketry with other techniques and media.
In this exhibition the artists explore and focus on the “wild” element in their pieces, and will be presenting a group installation of wild vessels. They have also put together a limited-edition booklet to trace the history of Wild Fibre Artists and the exhibitions they have displayed.