Cover

Various Artists

Curated by Richard Gordon, the works selected for Cover do not embody a narrowly definable approach to textiles. The artists Susan Warner Keene, Bill Morton and Barbara Todd do not share a common philosophy or aesthetic. Contemporary textiles are firmly based on traditions from all major cultures yet they share the artistic diversity of all contemporary art. The unifying element in the exhibition is the artists' ability to draw from this tradition, while developing highly personal methods for investigating man's emotional, spiritual and intellectual interaction with his world.

Barbara Todd
It is in the nature of textiles to mediate between nature and human culture, belonging to both and to neither. These works chart some of this ambiguous territory, where we face the dilemma of our implication in natural history. As objects they are equally artifacts of need and speculation.

The theme explored by the work in this exhibition is the unresolvable irony at the heart of present social/political life: the conflict between power, as exemplified by nuclear weaponry, and human values.

Susan Warner Keene
The work places two sets of concepts in the closest possible juxtaposition: the form of the hand quilted bedcover, with its connotations of warmth, care, economy and female handwork, and imagery of bombs and missiles, the dominant masculine icons of our civilization. It is my hope that through persistent juxtaposition, the work will have the effect of collapsing the separation between public/private, masculine/feminine, political/personal.

Bill Morton
Momentary light & shadow on rippling water
Brief glimmer of reflected light and filtered colour
Clearly etched not to be denied
Hand and brush liberate the mind while fluid silk responds
and answers again to questions unasked