Jeryl Church - Blog

PriSm 'Agenda' Exhibition, Hiscox Art Cafe

17/4/2016

At the beginning of March I was privileged to have My piece of work Seven Stages chosen to be part of the Prism 'Agenda' Exhibition at Hiscox Art Cafe in the City of London, for the Insurance Supper Club.

The work looked superb in the Art Cafe and was well received by the members of the Insurance Supper Club at the Private View and their guests. Catherine Dormor and Rosalind Wyatt, the guest speakers, gave two really thoughtful, interesting and appropriate talks to open the exhibition which went down extremely well. It was a lovely surprise to find my work had been chosen for the exhibition catalogue cover.

Pictures from the exhibition are on Prism's Facebook page here.

Title : Seven Stages
Hand spun lens tissue, ink.

For the Alzheimer's sufferer, more often a woman, there is no escape from the disease's relentless and stealthy agenda. Vigorous distortion and disintegration leads to the eventual unravelling of its victim.

10 days Winchester Chalk

16/10/2015

Yesterday I went to Winchester to see fantastic work in various venues for the 10 days arts festival. There is diverse, thought-provoking and engaging art on many levels.

Chalk is the very rare foundation upon which Winchester is built and is the inspiration and material for the art across the city. Work takes many forms including installations, poetry, textiles, jewellery, 3D and painting.

Work fits perfectly in various venues and particularly so in the City museum where the work subtly felt very much part of the collections, as did that displayed in City Space and the Theatre Royal.

It is well worth a visit to the many venues and events across the city.

link here

Mona Hatoum

13/7/2015

On a weekend in Paris earlier this month I was lucky enough to catch the Mona Hatoum Exhibition at the Pompidou. There are 100 works in this fantastic show inspired by Minimalism, Surrealism and Conceptual Art featuring grids, cages, barbed wire, maps, domestic objects and her hair. The work is a mix of cultures, her roots as well as where she has lived or settled.
It is an amazing mix of her work from all periods and disciplines: performance art, sculpture, video, stitch and photography. Her work is as diverse as it is daring. Her map of the world created from clear marbles moved and shook as we walked around it. As I walked around "Light Sentence" the shadows created by the lights have the sensation of being in a moving cage.

The exhibition comes to Tate Modern in May 2016 and will not be one to miss.

Sonia Delaunay - Tate Modern

16/6/2015

Don’t miss the Sonia Delaunay Exhibition which ends soon. Her work sizzles with charged modernity. She was a complex artist and she worked in many media. It is all here to see and for me not being familiar with the depth and breadth of her work, it was an eye-opener.

Being a textile artist I was most captivated by her brilliant designs for clothes, many of which would not be out of place today, although I cannot imagine the practicality of wearing a knitted swimsuit for swimming.

The exhibition is crammed full to the brim with her diverse work and consequently I think there is a lot to take in just the one visit.

link here

Agnes Martin - Tate Modern

16/6/2015

This is a calm and yet surprising exhibition. Much of the work follows her reoccurring themes of grids, rectangles and lines in many patterns and hues .However, I particularly loved the work in Room 3 developed from her experiments with different materials such as metals, wood and found objects.

The work sits well in the high ceilinged rooms full of natural light. And there is greatest impact where work is grouped around themes rather in chronological order.
My favourite was The Islands collection, whilst inviting utmost contemplation, it resonated with powerful ‘white noise’.

It is an exhibition to take your time viewing and one most definitely to revisit.

link here

london calling

5/6/2015

My friend and I had a busy and exciting day in London visiting three very different Exhibitions.
First on our list was Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty at the V&A. This was a breathtaking, magnificent exhibition with a dark and disturbing edge. It was wonderful to get up close to see the intricate embroideries, the detail and quality of materials and workmanship. Halfway through the exhibition we came upon the fabulous Cabinet of Curiosities crammed from floor to ceiling with fantastical dresses and accessories, including my favourite impossible heels. It is a worthy celebration of an incredible artistic talent.
Second on the list was the giant Embroidery of The Magna Carta's Wikipedia page in the British Library.This enormous work, 13 metres in length is stunning, subtle with the majority of stitching being text rather than illustrations. Mirrors are placed at intervals beneath the tapestry and it is fascinating to glimpse the reverse in places.
This work resonated with me feeling very much a portrait of today as our civil rights come under threat.
Cornelia Parker led the work supported by a range of contributors from prisoners, skilled members of the Embroiders' Guild, Royal School of Needlework along with the well-known. It was fascinating to see the significance of the words each of these embroidered.
I came away with a feeling that this will be a lasting contemporary artistic comment on the significance of the Magna Carta.
Finally we were lucky enough to have tickets for the Preview of the Summer Show at the R A.
Interesting as ever with plenty to discuss, the exhibition was easier to view with the work being far less crowded than in previous years. We wondered if there had been less submissions or a more rigorous selection process this year. Although the latter might be in doubt when some works are viewed. Oh to be a fly on the wall when the Selection Committee is discussing in the final selection process!
This year there were fewer pieces I longed to take home with me. Two of the exceptions were unfortunately prohibitive by cost and size: Richard Long's Mississippi River Blues, stunning against the shocking pink wall of show's signature space and Conrad Shawcross' The Dappled Light of the Sun. The fabulous weather enabled us to see the latter in all its glory.

New PRISM exhibition opens

31/5/2015

This week PRISM's 2015 textile art exhibition opened at Hoxton Arches in London (link). This years title was 'lines of communication'.

I was delighted to have a piece of work chosen for Lines of Communication. It was a very strong exhibition, excellently curated with a coherent focus on the theme and the work set well in the new venue of Hoxton Arches.

Sheila Hicks: Foray into Chromatic Zones

30/3/2015

Today I visited the fantastic new Sheila Hicks exhibition at the Heyward Gallery, Southbank Centre (link). This was a fabulous exhibition with the added bonus of being free. I loved the chaotic use of colour, energy and vibrancy in her work. The miniature experimental weaving a in the back room were thought-provoking and particularly resonated with me. My favourite pieces were the only drawings with mohair on rice paper where she has played around with the materials. It seems unbelievable that this is the first time Hicks has been shown in the UK.

The exhibition has inspired me to spend my birthday money on "Weaving as a Metaphor" which is a work of art itself, with its tactile construction of irregular edged, thick white pages and completely white exterior.