This is a guest blog by Intoart about their current research and artistic development programme ‘Place and Repeat’
Six artists from Intoart are engaging with the V&A collections over seven months, Sept 2015– March 2016 to make new visual artwork that will be realised as unique fabric designs. The resulting printed fabrics will include silk, cotton drill and upholstery fabrics. A key element of the project is the professional and artistic development of learning disabled artists, learning from archivists at Blythe House and curators from Fashion and Textiles and Prints and Drawings Collections.
Project updates for December 2015 – January 2016
After all the research in the V&A collections and archives, we are back in the Intoart studio to work on our final designs.
Here are some quotes from the artists about how their designs are shaping up:
“I am designing a fabric. I started by writing a list of all the things I would find in a room. Then I took photographs in the 20th Century Design galleries at the V&A. My fabric will have 9 different objects and pieces of furniture on it. I like the kettle best and the card table. I am going to do a radio next.”
Andre Williams
“There are lots of frogs on my fabric. The frogs are patterned, stripy, spotty and colourful. I want to use colours like blue, red, yellow, white, turquoise and black.”
Lisa Trim
Intoart artists at work in the studio with early designs
“My theme about space is coming together by using a book called ‘Soyuz’ which is perfect for the theme because it’s all about Russian space-crafts and space-stations. I saw an exhibition at the Science Museum called Cosmonauts which had lots of rockets and space-crafts. It inspired me for my theme and to use it in a creative process.”
Clifton Wright
“My design has clouds, flowers, mountains, lily-pads and reeds. My design is for a kimono. I picked my colours using a book called the ‘Dictionary of Colour Combinations’. I made three choices of different colour combinations and then will pick a favourite.”
Christian Ovonlen