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Textile
Art I read with interest Polly Leonard's article Cloth or Concept (The World of Embroidery, July issue) and her somewhat harsh appraisal of textile art. If you wish to be known as a textile artist and your chosen medium is fabric and thread, manipulated, distressed and encrusted with texture, why not call it 'Textile Art'? The term 'Mixed Media' is not descriptive enough.
Many embroiderers in recent times have resorted to describing their work as textile art to enable them to escape the label 'embroiderer' because of preconceived stereotyping by contemporary art galleries and the general public. If you call yourself an embroiderer, your work will be categorised as 'craft' and probably thought to be devoid of good design, regardless of its merits. You'd never catch a fine artist calling themselves an embroiderer!
Not all textile art is devoid of design or integrity. Many of us also draw on the rich cultural heritage of textiles, celebrating the essential qualities of surface, pattern and the repetitive nature of working with fabric and thread, without the desire to attribute political or gender issues. Polly informs us that the teaching in Textile Departments has moved towards intellectualisation of concept rather than cloth. Why? Surely they are of equal importance.
Throughout her article, Polly referred to textile practitioners and artists. Are we embarrassed to call ourselves embroiderers? I'm not.
Whatever art medium you choose to express your creativity, enjoy it, forget the label. If you produce a three-dimensional functional object (cushion), a piece of body ornament (necklace) or a vessel that questions the nature of the feminine (a bag to Hilary Blakey - Letters March 1998), it's a valid statement.
Will we see textile exhibitions in the future based around Cloth or Concept? Does it really matter . . . after all, it's only a passing trend.
Sue Nash, Condover, Shrewsbury
Cloth or ConceptI was very interested to see the article by Polly Leonard (The World of Embroidery, July 1998) which emphasised the importance of the art schools in the development of trends in textile art in bringing about changes from a preoccupation with medium and technique to work which explores issues and ideas. It is particularly encouraging to read that she thinks that the best textile art is increasingly being accepted as fine art and that it has nothing to fear alongside visual art made in other media.
However, it would seem unwise of her readers to assume that this inclusiveness can be seamlessly extended from practitioners such as Michael Brennand-Wood, Polly Binns and Maxine Bristow to the bulk of those of us who work as amateurs and who stitch for purposes other than to make a living. It seems to me that the crucial difference between these practitioners and the rest of us is that through the art history and contextual studies, which is an integral part of art school education, the former have an awareness and understanding of the theoretical issues informing contemporary art and have a critical context within which to place and evaluate their practice. This is not generally the case among amateur embroiderers who, however skilled technically, have not generally had access to the thinking around these debates.
This is emphatically not to say that the work of the amateur embroiderer is inherently 'worse' or 'less' than that of the professional, nor that the hierarchy is unchallengeable, the one that places fine art and an art school education at the top and devalues craft and amateur work; and also that privileges men's work over women's. (Indeed, these are precisely the sorts of issues being tackled by art historians and others.) However, from a practical point of view, it does mean that the amateur who wishes to place her work in a wider context that that of the world of embroidery - we know it is almost always women who embroider but why do we rarely ask why this is? - finds it so difficult to be taken seriously precisely because of a lack of a theoretical framework and a lack of knowledge of the rules the fine art world plays by.
Thus, it is a welcome departure for The World of Embroidery to be tackling some fundamental issues behind embroidery and textile art, as in Polly Leonard's article. Please can we have some more such thought-provoking articles dealing with underlying issues; for until we ask some fundamental questions about embroidery as a cultural practice, we run the risk of being stuck in a cultural ghetto.
Anne M Jones, Charvil, Reading, Berks
Editor's note: What do other readers think?
Embroidery and Textile ArtIt would appear that the general embroiderer is no longer encouraged to learn the skills of this craft, any more than those in the world of 'art' need to have the skill to draw. Both crafts used to require years of apprenticeship, the result treasured in museums or fetching high prices from collectors in sale rooms.
Today, after a quick troll through the varieties of the craft in City & Guilds Part 1, students can 'forge ahead' into what is now called 'Textile Art', which requires more enthusiasm than skill. I have no particular quarrel with textile art but wish it did not have such a high profile, almost obliterating the traditional techniques of embroidery. In fact, I personally think that it should be completely separated from the craft of 'embroidery'. Textile Art can then happily go and join Modern Art, from which they appear to get their inspiration, and may they enjoy many happy years together.
A visit to any of the Embroiderers' Guild's branch exhibitions will reveal that the true art of 'embellishing fabric with needle and thread' is alive and being enjoyed by the majority of members, to very high standards.
Embroidery is enjoying a glorious renaissance. Ever more people are discovering the craft, many through cross-stitch. Perhaps this is because they were not put off needlework by bullying teachers in school and come to it fresh with no ingrained inhibitions. Could this be why branches of the Guild are proliferating throughout the country? We must tread warily for fear of putting out their flame of enthusiasm.
With this craft, haste is not important, only the gentle pleasure of creation, with a practised hand placing the needle and the thread where it is needed, and eventually leaving something for your family to treasure in the next millennium. That is embroidery.
Jennifer Harrison, Ecton, Northampton
Art and EmbroideryMy (rather old) Pocket Oxford Dictionary defines 'art' as 'thing in which skill may be exercised, demanding mind and imagination'. If a pile of bricks, a concrete-filled house and a dead sheep in formaldehyde can all be encompassed within the boundaries laid down by the 'art' fraternity, I don't see why they should have any problems with embroidery and modern textile art. Perhaps 'mind and imagination' are only demanded of the beholder.
Gill Pritchard, Blandford, Dorset