Collect 2024

Collect 2024 with Contemporary Applied Arts

1-3 March (Previews 28-29 Feb)

Somerset House

SOUTH WING, S5

I hadn’t expected my trip to Japan to inspire work about the landscape or the weather, I guess that is the thing about inspiration you don’t know where it’s going to come from. I’ve been thinking for a while that the weather influences the way my work looks but in a very oblique way. My subtle colour pallets subconsciously reflecting the cool light of English skies of shifting cloudscapes in white and grey.

The day we visited Saijo-ji Temple Moss Garden it was rainy, the damp heightened green velvetiness of the moss carpet it was the utterly enchanting. For Collect 2024 I’ve made an informal triptych, three pieces inspired by our adventures in Japan; Moss Garden, Cloud and Rain.

Cloud was inspired by a trip we took to Hakone to view Mount Fuji, catching a view is always a bit of a gamble because clouds of course can obliterate a view, but we were really lucky and from the shore of Lake Ashi we watched as a single little cloud moved away from the  mountain top to reveal all her splendour.

Rain was not only inspired by the weather but also by the dimensions of obi (kimono belts). In this piece I’ve used long stitches to attach hundreds of small pieces of organza which I frayed by hand to the linen banner. The pieces move from dark blues and charcoal at the top through pale blues greys to mossy greens at the bottom.