Submerged: Natural dyes & stitched sounds

Description

Materials of natural dyeing - dried seeds, bark, petals, leaves, berries

Their sound, feel, smell: in the hand, under the pestle, scent rising: mud & musk, sweet grass & cedar

Rustling, crackling, swirling, sifting, shifting; grinding, pounding.

Tumble of water into pot, the rising boil, fabric submerged, stirred, the ichor suffusing it…a high boil

Rinses, the final colour: white into the palest gold

Sound into stitch: still haptic, pull & tug of thread, flecks & lines, movements & layers

Stitch into sound: the textile as score, sounds threading & dancing, speckling

A collaboration with sound-artist/musician Gavin Osborn, taking the form of a 4 day R&D residency at The Bath House Galleries, Sovereign House during Cultures of Sound 2023. During the residency we explored 'documentary' sound recording as a source & resource for the textile artist to stitch to, with the resulting textile pieces as a further stimulus for the sound-artist to use to make creative sound-work: The exchanges:- "Documentary" sound recording --> stitched embroidery works- Stitched embroidery works treated as musical 'score' --> creative sound works - Recordings of in-progress stitching --> creative sound work. During the process of the exchanges we explored home-dying & -staining processes, working in/with nature as a wellbeing process, wrapped into celebrations of stitching. This content guides the sound recorded & the stitching processes.

Period	18 May 2023 → 21 May 2023
Held at	Bath House Galleries, United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	National