What is Urban Fabric?
What is Urban Fabric? reveals diverse notions of belonging materialised through textile projects from Textile Future Research Community researchers based at Central Saint Martins. The group exhibition will include Philippa Brock, Linda Florence, Anne Marr and Jo Pierce showcasing different perspectives on Urban Fabric research: from community engagement activities to city data collection. Suggested pieces range from wallpaper archaeology discovered in domestic East London settings, to inter-woven London underground travel patterns as well as digitally embroidered community 'badges of honour' and textile animations developed with Crisis Skylight Brent members.
Studio Houndstooth - Philippa Brock and Jo Pierce - are compiling a signifgicant archive of how people decorated their domestic spaces using wallpaper. This wallpaper ‘archaelogy’ documents both how the flats were left when the residents moved out, and also the evidence of layers of wallpapers. Exhibition pieces will be 5 printed banners 1m wide x 2.5m long
Linda Florence's research is focused on how we trace our travels, discovering new places in London and breaking away from the familiar path. Working with computer programmer Julian Fenner, they designed a program that interprets the data contained on an Oyster card. This data is transformed into a woven pattern representing all of the London Underground stations visited by the user. The design can be changed by adding more destinations to the Oyster card when traveling in London. Exhibition pieces will include 5 woven badges and a location/ data poster (1mx 1.5m).
Anne Marr has initiated a new arts programme with the Crisis Skylight Centre in Brent one of the UK’s most economically deprived areas. The project included 35 Crisis members, who have been affected by homelessness over the past two years. Participants reflected on their personal journeys of belonging and responded to the diverse findings through textile making. Artwork on show will include a textile animation film created by the participants as well a photo documentation from the project.
Futurescan 4: Valuing Practice Exhibit
University of Bolton
23-24 January 2019
Photographs by Tony Radcliffe and Di Downs.