Today I visited Laura McCafferty’s exhibition at the Lakeside Arts gallery. I was exploring the gallery’s website and this showcase appealed to me; it was portrayed as a colourful display of fabrics. This was certainly mirrored in the physical space.
Although I was expecting the exhibition to be larger, I enjoyed closely observing the four pieces that were on display. As a result of their only being few elements to the exhibition, it reinforced the quality of each piece and made me appreciate the craft that would have gone into the construction of each one. They managed to fill the empty space as a result of their large scale. Even though they were all a substantial size, a hierarchy still existed, with the largest – entire wall piece – demanding the most attention.
I really enjoyed witnessing McCafferty’s interdisciplinary approach combining installation and textiles to ‘subtly mess with what’s expected’. The brightly-coloured, boldly-patterned textiles suggest the artist finds pleasure in repetition, which I admit that I also find joy in the repeated process. Cutting and sticking, chopping and piecing together means one thing leads to another, making the process purposeful and enjoyable.
I have since explored and followed her Instagram page and discovered that each small panel was sewn together, using hand embroidery to form larger squares, and it was these that combined together to create the whole mosaic fabric wall. This showed me how much construction went in to putting this all together.
Rachel
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