CIRCA 111 review

Belfast: Contemporary Textile Art at Ormeau Baths Gallery

Helen McAllister: installation detail, 2004; courtesy Ormeau Baths Gallery

In my naïvety, I was expecting Contemporary Textile Art 2004 to be all felted wall-hangings and wispy bits of fabric. To my delight, I found this show to be heavy on the art.

In its second year at the Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast, this biennial open-submission exhibition is a vibrant, eclectic mix of styles, aims, and artists. The selected artists, from over two hundred entries, represent a truly international feel and range of work. The three selectors were David Brett, art historian and writer, Sonia Rolak, artist and writer, and Marian Bijlenga, artist and winner of Contemporary Textile Art 2002.

The Ormeau Baths provides an interesting mix of gallery spaces. On entering one is confronted by two large pieces by Wanda Casaril, successfully playing on ideas of light, shadow and delicacy. Also in the same space, in complete contrast to the scale of Casaril’s work, Anna Ray’s small-scale illustrations investigate notions and the significance of stitch in women’s lives. This is just one of the sets of work to use narrative. Janet Ledsham continues to explore the cycle of nature, perhaps even her own. The work has an almost gothic quality, seemingly oppressed in the space.

The overall winner for 2004, receiving a prize of £6000, was Caroline Broadhead. Showing Spot, 2002, in an intimate space off the larger gallery made that area one of quiet, of delicate transience, which I found particularly poignant.

In the back gallery, shoes crawl up the wall, suggesting both beauty and menace. Italian artist, Helen McAllister’s cellotape shoes manage to fool the viewer with their intricacy and grandeur. Leather and embroidery, combined with titles such as Bunion paired and Ache, manage to evoke the sense and influence of Venice.

Other pieces to stand out included Simply divine 1-3 by Tobi Deeson. Narrative was explored beautifully through child-like figures vomiting flowers, inspired by a Hindu myth recounting how, when the mother opened the mouth of toddler Krishna, she found the whole world inside. Fantastic. The 2002 winner and 2004 selector, Dutch artist Marian Bijlenga, showed a significant body of work in the airy upstairs gallery. Line, space, and form were explored through material, Holes & Stones I & IIbeing particular favourites.

The exhibition, as a whole, showed a trend towards expressing a range of narratives through the media. Very much becoming 3D illustrations and paintings, I found an excitement and desire in the work to express ideas, play with context and installation. Highlights included works by Broadhead, Deeson, and Susie MacMurray, with those by Bijlenga, Michael Brennand-Wood, and Toshihiro Hattori illustrating the diverse possibilities of textile art.

My only concern for this eclectic and exciting show related to how some of the work was displayed, and the disparity in quality and amount of space given. A relatively minor complaint in such an interesting show.

Rachel Dickson is a graduate from the RCA, and is currently Associate Lecturer at the University of Ulster, Belfast.

Contemporary Textile Art, Ormeau Baths Gallery, December 2004 - January 2005

Article reproduced from CIRCA 111, Spring 2005, pp.78

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