Louise Riley

Artlessness and Quickfixation

2011-12-28T16:28:00.000-08:00

This is a some footage I made in California in the summer as part of the Meta Residency and have just put together on youtube video editor, it is the first time I have used it and it is ok. I would like to be able to play with the timing more and work with the audio a lot more elaborately (I had to pick from their library of music, I couldn't even select silence!)

But... I think it is Ok so far and at least I can share it.

So here is the first video diagram in the manual I am compiling :

'Quick Fixes'

And like so often, I need to take my own advice....

I have been a bit artless, let things landslide off the table,

spending so much time navigating through the invisible world of possibility and impossibility.

Let loves down by being invisible.

But the friction of boredom and fast sprouting energy

and the intangible and the tangible start to merge, my sketches and plans appear in the everyday.

layered like a lovely projection on the real, arrows pointing excitedly and bowed lines connecting things

circles surrounding things to say 'ohhhh Yes'. Alliterative Titles next to things in Bold capitals, in Bold boxes.

Don't get me wrong, I have been laughing, I have been cooking, I have been mothering, I have been lovering,

I have been singing and dancing and swimming in the sea and giving shoulder rides and cebebrating.

But I have also been a little hidden, slothy and blurred.

Time to wake up.

Pass the Glitter....

OPEN HOUSE

2011-11-23T05:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Art lover!

After the show at the Hospital club, I now have a house full of art! So I thought I would make the most of it and show it off a bit.

So drop in!
There will be mulled wine flowing and filling the air with its hypnotic flavour.
Nibbles, until all nibbled.
A few spontaneous singsongs.
Walls filled with my work
all within the comfort of my lovely little home.

All welcome.

Look forward to seeing you!

x Louise Riley

ps. there are lots of fun things to do close by also so make a day of it!:

There is The Lee Valley Icerink 10 minutes down the road.
A lovely walk can be had at Wathamstow Marshes and along the River Lee.
There is the famous Chatsworth Road Saturday Market and there is a Santas Grotto and Christmas market a short bus ride away at St John-at-Hackney Church Gardens London E5 0PD.

ps. I will be selling prints and there will be an option to buy the more major works in installments as low as £40 a month! so you could have one of my mega embroideries in your home! yahooo!

The Culmination of Creation- Last chance people!

2011-11-02T04:59:00.000-07:00

Hey Loves!

This show is coming down on Saturday!

If you want to see it this is your last chance!

24 Endell St, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9HQ

The Triptych I created in the window over the last month,

Spacescape, Landscape, Cellscape.

Altogether they make up:

'A Diorama of Creation From Scale 1-∞'

I feel quite emotional seeing them altogether, it has been quite the sewing marathon and stretching them up for the last part of the exhibition where the are displayed as a diorama was joyful, peaceful, liberating and sad all at the same time. I feel most drawn to the mountain, I just want to dive in that lake, feel the cool slippery water pass over me, swim to the otherside, walk through the forest and smell that damp piney smell and then climb that mountain. I want in.

They are each 94" x 72",

they can collaborate with the world and eachother, with light and shadow.

When I lay the landscape over the spacescape it is instantly a nightscape:

I LOVE THAT

Below are the pieces in the other windows, you can see the difference by night and by day,

ever evolving in a slightly wonky cycle.

This is the best shot I got by night, there will be better ones when I take it all out, the window is so reflective it is challenging to photograph.

Over and out. xx

Time Away

2011-10-20T04:23:00.000-07:00

I'm taking tim, away to dream, I'm taking time out to clean up my room and when i clean up, my room will gleam, because dreams aren't as unreal as they seem...

I am taking thes rest of this week off, I started sewing a city and I hated it! After sewing the universe and the mountains it was torture to sew something inorganic. I have been wrestling all week, having crisis' of confidence and wildy wracking my brain for the solution, trying to make myself do it.

And the conclusion is,

I cannot

do it.

There were so many signs including the fact that my costume for this week set of fire at my private view!
I'm ok, I'm ok, don't worry!

So I am putting full steam into the last phase which I am going to start this saturday and it is going to be BEAUTIFUL

and I am 100% sure about it.

Until then I am going to make my costume

and do some washing, read books with my daughter, play the guitar and dance.

NEXT WEEKS SCHEDULE

Sat: 10.30-5.30

Mon: 10.30 - 3.30

Tues: 10.30 - 2.30

Wed: 1-8

Thurs: 10.30 - 3.30

Fri: 10.30 - 2.30

Sat: 1-8

See you next week! xx

Magma makes Mountains

2011-10-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

Kaboom!

Sewing the mountainscape was heavenly, it is an arrow pointing at the heavens afterall,

and the mountain is a perfect metaphor for a life well lived, full of the struggle, the triumph, the slippery slope,

While sewing the reflection of the mountain in the lake, I reflected on this idea.

Its all real in this surreal world of lateral literalness.

Sewing a landscape...

2011-10-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

Sewing in Situ 1 from Louise Riley on Vimeo.

Today was my first day sewing an earthly landscape, I made a satisfactory start and had a lot of nice conversations, but if I look like I am frowning in the photo it is because I was. Quite a few people mentioned the length of my skirt and spoke quite loudly but indirectly about me, saying quite horrible things, completely discrediting my work. I was quite shocked really, I thought the outfit was so great it didn't even occur to me that it would upset anyone. The costumes are part of the concept. This week I am sewing an earthly landscape and am dressing as elements that have created some of the wonderous landscapes we know today. Do you really think anything says storm better than this?

Last day of Sewing the Universe

2011-10-08T03:50:00.000-07:00

I will be in situ from about 3.30pm till 10pm today, there is more work in the lobby to see.

This is the last day I will be sewing the Universe.

Come and pop in.

The Hospital Club

24 Endell St, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9HQ

Peak

2011-10-06T07:08:00.000-07:00

Took down this show this morning and painted the wall white which was sad, though the ink bleeding through the white was so lovely....

The Lucidity Slice - Stopping Time, To Time Travel

2011-10-05T03:41:00.000-07:00

These are pictures from my show at The Hospital Club, I have taken over the lobby. It was so great to make this work, I had planned to have the embroideries facing out onto the street, but when making window pieces one should take into consideration the effect that mirrored glass will have on visibility! haha, so they are facing inside!
While sewing these pieces I have untangled the rain, I have spun the sun, made a starscape of rainbows and plucked out rupunzels pubes. I LOVE ARTLIFE!

'Liquid Lucy in Lucidity's Slice and Splice'

'Dreamscape'

'Cordelia'
"The soul would have no rainbow if the eye had no tears" - Native American proverb

'Smokey Spirit Selina'

Notice that there is basically a grown up rainbow bright and rapunzel in this show, not being influenced by my daughter Nova at all :-S

The Diorama of Creation From Scale 1-∞

2011-10-05T03:02:00.000-07:00

I have just begun a three week performance piece in the window of The Hospital Club in Covent Garden, where I will be sewing every day apart from the Sabbath for the next 3 weeks, though I am considering adding an extra week because it is just so damn fun. Yesterday I was almost in tears feeling so overwhelmed at how wonderful it is, feeling like I was born to dress up and put loads of makeup on (looking slightly draggy lets face it), listening to my favourite songs and dancing while sewing and people giving me thumbs up all day long. This week I am sewing the Universe and yesterday I had a little helper come to keep me company.

I Love My Window Sticker!

Incredible costume made for me by the equally incredible Mariaflora P

which I actually slightly burst out of trying to reach those distant planets and am repairing as we speak.

So come and visit me, this is my schedule for the rest of this week:

Wednesday, Saturday(today) - 3pm-10pm

Thursday, Friday - 10am - 5pm

Will post schedule for next week on Sunday.

Here's to celebratin' creation by creatin'!

This is the song that has been blowing in my ear. It transports me to that magical place that is NOLA.

PUSH

2011-08-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

It is with enormous pride and delight that I announce I shall be one of the thirty artists in this book coming out in September, Push Stitchery: 30 Artists Explore the Boundaries of Stitched Art. Believe me, it is an honour to be set alongside these artists, we are all adventurers and not afraid of a bit of hard labour. I cannot wait to hold a copy in my hands and give it a sniff, I hope it doesn't smell of fish like the last book I was in that I eagerly sniffed. That was weird.

Anyway, a big squeeze to the author for including me, Jamie Chalmers aka Mr X.

You can pre-order from Amazon here

Its like holding hands, only rougher

2011-07-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

I just went to do an artists residency in the Sonoma Hills of California. I have to admit when I arrrived there was a storm a brewing inside, I did the same residency last year and the whole landscape and experience was so pregnant with the love I felt and received from someone special, that to go back to the land, to retread those sacred footsteps alone suddenly filled me with fear and as the plane took off I just wept.

There is a term in New Orleans called 'taking the beast for a walk', well that is exactly what I intended to do, was gonna get on that hill and curate the sky with kites, like speech bubbles, or bat signals, or even exorcisms of the fliers. So excited to collaborate with the wind and in my mind I wanted to build this huge whily out of control kite, that wouldn't necessarily work with the wind, that would furl and unfurl, morph and and just rah in the sky. I didn't know if I could do it, I had an excellent kite construction book and of course my usual cockiness that anything can be done.

So as we are driving from San Francisco we stop and get a bite to eat at this funny little seaside restaurant with a cowboy band honky tonking in the next room, we fill our bellies and say cheers to the impending adventure with a litte sparkly. Before we left, I needed to dip into that sea, cos when I see the sea, I just need a little baptism, so i ran in with my clothes on, (to be fair my little jumpsuit was not much more than a swimming costume and bang, it was a real boistroous sea, it gave me a real tumble and I swam out to where the waves were a little less crashy. I will tell you, it was beautiful and fierce, it was icey cold and th waves were so powerful, it was being at the mercy of nature at its best, I ended up swallowing a whole load of sea water and really struggles with all my might against the undercurrent that would just wipe out my progress in a second. When I got to shore I had a moment of that elation, the stingy pink of my skin, the pride of the wrestle, but very quickly I couldn't see straight and sitting in the foot well naked swaddled by a blanket I puked my guts out into a coffee cup. When we began the ascent up the hill, with the sun glittering through the evergreens and the smell of the forest all the fear had gone, all the memories were washed out. I was so weak and base, all I culd think of was gratitude for all the beauty as my head began not to spin anymore and I felt the warm air that rising to the peak washes over you, by the time I arrived, it was just a sweet warm relief to be in this place I knew so well and loved.

When I got there I quickly realised there was no wind to play with, I ran around like a silly puppy with my maquette kite, enjoying the sweet exercise and youthful sprite it takes to fly a kite, but it was fruitless. Without being able to try out the simple kites I couldn't get a sense for how it all worked and quickly my confidence and sureness melted away, which felt awful. I was only going to be there for two weeks and already a fair few days had passed by this time. The ghosts of the land started fogging up as the San Francisco smog crept up like a beautiful, but sinister blanket and the beast was sitting right on my chest, I was definitely not taking it for any walk.

But as life always does, the little sparks of inspiration started their little glow and it is all thanks to the people, it always is, that is why there are so many people in my work, the beautiful encounters we can have, the inspiration and the mutual button pressing that goes between people when they share their souls so openly, that magic, that always fires me up. Some of the people I meet in my life are magnificent, the wildness of a personal intimacy between two people is so unique, even in its ordinariness. I was so inspired by my artist friend Daphane Park, who just manages to bring so many people together by asking for help and having ideas on the table as a forum of discussion, it made me realise how limited I am sometimes, how I just work away in some squirrel hole alot of the time, just to be able to feel some all-encompassing ownership and I can say that, that my work is all mine all mine, but that attitude has only brought my loneliness and often exhaustion from having big ideas and trying to achieve them alone.

And Pamala, she has created a forum for deep discussion and relation in a place of safety, that is such a rare and rough diamond, that kind of devotion is so uncommon to me and I wonder and admire that she is evolved in such a way and I can see that she has such depth with so many people she touches.

Adrina my collaborator and dearest friend, we truly do cross oceans for eachother and pioneer our lives to involve eachother for meetings of the minds but also for the future, to always have a path that somehow includes eachother.

And Elliott the warrior, who let me talk on the phone for an hour in circles beause sometimes that is just how realisation and understanding comes.

And John for finding the glitter in the dark with a torch, for John because he is a special person and ecouraged me to play the organ, when the rest were getting sick of my bad teenage renditions of love songs.

To Miles and Valentine, for moving the slight cinic (inbuilt london barriers) so physically and emotionally with their psychic ceremony. They told me that I could reenact a few scenarios in my life, ask back the parts of myself that I gave too freely, they also led me to imagine that my aura was an opening and closing rose, opening to let the joy flood in, closing to protect my sweet self.

Seed and her gentle compassion and understanding.

I made some work, some new kind of work, I started something that has been inkling in my mind but never made it out as a solid pursuit and I left happy, stinking to buggery as the electricty and therfore hot water, had run out two days before, warm from the candlelight talks, a head full of glitter and some serious cowboy boots on my feet increasing my stride by 1.5. On the way to the airport I felt the beast on my chest again. And then the tears just flowed, nothing lasts forever, some beauty is just a fleeting gift.

I made a droplet, a geometric construction. This holds so much weight in my mind this form. It seems to have it all, it is the top of the hierarchy of needs, it has all of life in it, it has release, it has that mid air tiny slice of the present, it has left the source and there is an explosion impending, it is that perfect tiny slice of the present that I always think about, that doesn't really exist since the future is sucked through the portal of the present to become past in a seamless transaction. It is so relevent.

Now the last drop of that year yonder love has left my body, I have a banging body, well as much as it can bang after having a kid, but it does, all that doughy flesh that seemed to appear when love was in fruit has gone and what is left is the ferral necessity, the lythe muscles it takes to get through a day in my life, which can be a little on the edge of possibility, I feel ready to pounce.

And when I was putting the eyedrops in my nearly five year old daughters eye, who has glaucoma and has just had her second surgery all in the space of five weeks, I realised the how connected we were, that the drops would go into her eyes and come out of mine.

I am going to make some films and y'all will see them soon. really soon and I think I might turn all of them into a book.

Get ready.

The Swan Bandwagon

2011-05-05T08:35:00.000-07:00

Finally found these photos in a dusty corner of my hard-drive.

A paper wedding dress I made for Kate's Paperie in New York.

I was working right up to the button and unfortunately my photos were not very good

and neither were theirs!

These are the best of them.

Let me know if you want one for your wedding.

pros : unique, can get big volume without using too much paper, so you can look like my big fat gypsy wedding for less, you can snip it up afterwards and write your thank you letters on it.

cons: flammable, kind of awkward to sit down, people might tear off bits to write eachothers phone numbers on, you know what cattle markets weddings can be.

The back of the Bolero

The Dress and Close-up of the Train

Mardi Gras! The most evident utensil

2011-04-27T03:24:00.000-07:00

7 oclock Mardi Gras morning after getting to sleep at 5.30 am. My god adrenaline is an amazing thing. Thank god being as pale as a ghost only enforced the concept of my costume.

Photo - Caitlin Hansen

Can you guess what I am? Neither could anyone else! The thing is, I was so convinced of the clarity of this costume and now when I look at this picture I wonder what I was actually thinking, why I had such clear confidence that I was almost an exact replica. I can see that I could make some minor improvements and it will be much clearer, longer wig, gold bit and pink bit actually part of the dress.... Next time.

So I did make it and cut my own pattern for it and it is doublesided and turns into a kind of multi-from avant guarde evening gown on the other side. I am proud of these things.

So I will give you some clues:

First clue - it was inspired by this song, the brainwave hit me like a lightening bolt in the head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lWYBzpPZBA

Second clue - you can't actually see it, and I shall take a picture and ammend this post, but my cape is in the style of a piece of lined paper.

Third clue - the people seemed to really like my dance when I wrote their names with my hat and my other dance specifically entitled the 'Rubbing man'.

Yep you guessed it.

And another costume made from the wallpaper of Dominic Crinson. We are propellor boy, jelly fish and cabin boy respectively, all dolled up for the Maritime Ball at the Spellcaster Lodge. It felt great, though I needed to take an assistant to the loo and some rather rough looking gaffa tape repairs were made through the evening, since I was completley unable to control my dance moves when the 'Thee Oh See's' began to play.

Photo - Caitlin Hansen

Destruction Inspires Creation

2011-04-16T15:02:00.000-07:00

Was thinking of renting out some desk space....anyone? ;-)

Harmonious soundwaves from the loophole of infinity.

Visual onomatpoeia, you know looks like the sound it would make.

Coming out of their shell

We are all born in a barn

Retired lightening bolts of passion

Crystals and coffee cups

2011-04-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

unintentional sculpture

2011-04-16T14:27:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, what I am about to tell you is bad. I have been so hooked on this book, 'Fountainhead'. I found myself reading it at the oddest hours, living the sleep of having a new born baby, though maybe i was the baby, being fed by the rich plateau of conversation it created, the thoughts it provoked, the anger and debates it created, the nodding understanding of being on the same page. So I was reading it in the bath at four in the morning....and I woke up at 6 in a cold bath with my book floating in the waves.

and when it came out it looked like this and i cursed that the best sculpture i ever made was so unintentional. This is exactly how I feel about the content of the book, well actually it isn't how \i feel this is the content of the book, it became more of itself than it could be.

New Drawings

2011-02-01T07:01:00.000-08:00

Tableauscape

Lucy in the Skyscape

Dreamscape

Sleepscape

I have been doing some drawing recently, multi layered drawings that develop slowly after much rearranging, a collage of lots of drawings from past, present and a created future, creating and unearthing at the same time. It is quite difficult for me to believe that a drawing is the end result, so used to things going from drawing into the sewing phase, but since this process mimics the layered net embroidery I did over the summer, I feel as though these are informed from some new dimmension and that these are the product of a much longer journey, not the first time that my drawing have been influenced by sewing. I am curious to hear your thoughts.

Converting Converse

2011-01-18T03:44:00.000-08:00

Dear People,

I embroidered these for a darling of mine. It was based on some wonderful shared experiences. It was such an interesting canvas to work on and I want to do it again and again. So here's the deal. I can do yours, or a gift for a loved one, you tell me what special secrets you want to unfold over them, or of course you can let me surprise you. You either give me a pair you already have, or you order a pair and have them sent to my address.

The standard price is £200 for the sewing, any post and packaging costs will be added on top of that.
if you have a simple idea or want real rubies on them, I will adjust the price accordingly.

If you are interested email me at louise.riley@gmail.com we can discuss, maybe even have a skype over a cup of tea regarding designs.

xx Louise

MERRY CHRISTMAS and most importantly HAPPY NEW YEAR

2010-12-20T16:05:00.000-08:00

Eclipse - Performance for Ex Deo Libertas

2010-10-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

Eclipse - Performance for Ex Deo Libertas from Louise Riley on Vimeo.

Documentation of a performance piece I created for the show 'Ex Deo Libertas', for The Life is Art Foundation in Sonoma, California.

The piece creates a parallel universe, the complete focus between the artist and the model creates this otherworldly intimacy where nothing else exists. The remnants of this communication being recorded/stitched in the 'portal lense'.
The flying nature of it, floating above the crowd, a dreamlike self, above a waking self, plays on notions of reality.

Sunrise Sunfall

2010-10-29T04:27:00.000-07:00

A short film, in front of my embroidery 'Raw Vision' created for the show 'Ex Deo Libertas'. The focus of all my work for this show was looking at things from different perspectives, inspired by the controversiality of working on a marijuana farm whose aim is to generate support for the artists of Life is Art Foundation. Anything controversial essentially means that it can be viewed from a variety of perspectives. Raw Vision's inception was the focusing on the purest human view, the retina flips the image we see over and it is the brain that flips it back over. Therefore upside down is the view before it has been judged, the tiny tiny portal of the present.The beauty of the farm, its gardens, land and view was gaspful, it took me about a minute to get my pens out, plot myself into the vegetable patch and draw and draw and breath in, throughout my stay I was always taking more in, delving deeper into my exploration. It had me under its spell entirely.

The poem was written in a hotel room at 2am the day after I left the farm, where I was feeling overly whelmed and fiercely inspired to write. The writing is below, for those who want to take a closer look.

Sunrise Sunfall

Where have I been?

Pioneering in fresh freedom.

Rolling around rulelessly and rolickful,

hope and belief overflowing the coffee cup

We put our golden, swollen hearts on stakes

and marked the land with our treasurous experiences,

so that the gods and extra terrestrials

will see the history of happening on this real map.

It was real wasn't it. wasn't it?

I am not sure.

My conception of this concept is so blurry.

So many ways there are to look at one thing.

I took my glasses off when I arrived,

saw what I could

and filled the rest with imagination, intuition and gut

and it was a wonderful wonderland.

Her too long embraces completely disarmed me,

it felt as natural as my birdie-beating heart could allow

and when the warm, just filled, belly pressed against mine,

well it felt like immaculate conception.

And you, I looked into the double eclipse in your eyes

and so much entranced was I, that I jolted when you blinked.

If i was able to put into words the adventures I had on your face

well, you may have imposed limits, or charged entry.

Yeah, headshaking human beauty everywhere.

There was her sweet sweetness and big smallness

and his squeeze and rasp and strengthful softness

and her golden shining hair and campful clarity.

Her wit and walk and wavy ponytail

and her moving mouth and goddess gate

and his moving body and weighing mind

and his gentle way, melting my sometimes brash boldness.

Her smooth parallelagram face and rainbowchain gums

and his wildly practical ticktocking mind

and his mutual love of logic all

and his girly-guyly dimple smile

My loves.

Could I put a photo in a frame on my bedside table,

well that would be as forlorn and flaccid as a

butterfly with a pin in its once flightful self.

I could get a laser

and ceremonially trace the rim light of

the moon making a fineline landscape

on the cusp of your hair?

Yeah, there were scapes everywhere,

sea of knee scapes

glass menagerie scapes

bathing beautyscapes,

all the way to the peripheryscape

and thats when we were cougars

and then foxes

and then wolves.

Yeah, we were beasts

and now I have no idea

which is my totem animal,

since I channeled so many up on that hill.

I was there, I snorted and leapt,

dived and made quick ferral decisions,

my paws ruffled through chickens with you,

bones and flesh and wishes a-flying.

I know savour is the answer,

but I am not there yet,

I have watched the future become the present,

but I can not yet let the present become past,

so fresh the affair,

a storm flashing and waving,

epiphanating around in my mind

and thrashing around to my core.

Can I stand up on the table and scream?

I want to cry and sob

and say that I am covered in splinters and scars

inside and out,

because I have loved deeply

and been deeply all,

deeply this and deeply that

and it lingers still,

though it suddenly feels pornogrpahic,

something to hide under my coat.

Just like the obscene view of the city

through my glasses back weighing on my nose.

I am not free,

I just drank from the cup,

and the cuppeth overfloweth.

and I knoweth

because if I was free I could just flow

and I wouldn't know the difference

between one life and the next,

but then would this have been such a miraculous pleasure stream?

Would I have felt the sunshine shine right through my transluscent self?

Would I have laughed so thoroughly I thought I might

turn inside out or shed a skin

with the writhing contractions happening from within?

I did fly,

I flew above all of you and saw things from the sky,

I turned the world upside down for a while.

I made the sunset with the might of tiny steps.

I was free, it was me, I am redhanded

I feasted on joy and soft-spot stew,

I felt love I still can't conceive of how to deserve,

I had my desert before dinner

and I don't know how I will ever recover ....

The magical world of up the scaffolding at Eiffel Society

2010-10-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

The Catalysts - The God and Goddess of all Creation

photo - Lisa Lozano

photo - Luke Gilford

Visible only to the keenest of attentions, CATALYSTS floats high overhead in the skylight above Eiffel Society's three teared ceiling. Embroidered in thread on tulle, its figures change with light and appear to float. In response to my enquiry as to whom I should embroider to be the God and Goddess of all creation, Kirsha said: Mythological characters of course. Who is the architypal couple that represents all you are thinking about? I said: No, they have to be living people. Kirsha: What?!! Why?!! I said: That is just the rule! They must be living. K: Well... it should be the founders of the New Orleans Contemporary Art Center then.

And that is who was embroidered.

It was so beautiful up there, all these floating lines and shapes with the sunset flooding through, the air was so hot and still, it felt like how I imagine being inside a bubble might feel. I was pretty terrified at first, it was so high and deliriously hot that it made you feel a little unsteady, sweaty hands don't inspire confidence, but slowly I got into it and by the end, I was hanging off the sides without a blink. One fear down, a few more to go.

.....and everybodies favourite, the back, bravely photographed by Lisa Lozano on the roof of the building!

the making of the shroud and studio peek

2010-10-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

This is my wonderful studio where all the art happens.

The beginnings of the cosmic starburst to shroud Gene Nathans lovely pearly body.

The moment inspiration flowed.

The little birdie in a nest, making art of her own.

The Moment Androidella Became a Real Girl

2010-09-07T07:38:00.000-07:00

It is a work in progress. It slotted in nicely to the Exquisite Corpse show, but after spending a day away from it, it all slotted into place how I want it to grow and evolve....more on that later...

'Source' at Eiffel, by day and by night

2010-08-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

Photos by Luke Gilford

2010-08-16T06:06:00.000-07:00

PRESS RELEASE

THE EXQUISITE CORPSE
Gallery Superstore

02 September 2010, 18.00 - 22.00
Dalston Superstore, 117 Kingsland High St, E8 2PB

Emma Gibson, Fred Butler, Louise Riley, Anna Bruder, Celia Arias, Jay Barry Matthews, Moses Powers, Adam Vergette, Clare Whittingham, Martin Wollerstam, Justine Josephs, Cordelia Weston, Alex Noble.

The Gallery Superstore invites artists for it’s fourth group show, to explore the themes and practices of the parlor game originating ‘Exquisite Corpse’. A name given by the Surrealists when they first played the game also known as ‘Consequences’. In it’s original form it was a play of sentences and adjective nouns. Finding the practice playful and enriching, the surrealist developed it into more of an art form that has been celebrated to this day.
And can now be seen as drawing, collage and sculpture and inspires artists to fashion designers and photographers.

The morbidness of the games title seems to push through when inspiring previous art works of this theme, moving away from the playful to the more subversive, as seen in the work of Hans Bellmer’s ‘poupee’ series and the sculptures of Louise Bourgeois.
The art of creating figures from a varied number of objects gave a way to represent characters and symbolize parts of their psyche with effective and sometimes disturbing results. The random objects used may reflect the jumbled assortment of ideas and emotions manifested by the artist. To show physical strength or weakness as well as mental intent.

With the modern obsessions for body modification, ground breaking scientific developments and constant referencing to the past and the future. This exhibition gives artists scope to produce a figure that is diverse and unique, surreal and hap hazard or meticulous in creation.
The concept gives access to explore gender and social roles with the freedom to be playful as well as serious in discussion, what will we learn about the artist by what they create?

The exhibition seeks to be 3D installation lead, with the artists life size ‘cadavers’ hanging from the Superstore meat hooks, as an eclectic morgue of objects of intrigue.

guidance to a fractured swan

2010-08-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

The piece in the 'Strange Birds' exhibition.

Based on a love letter written from F. Scott Fitzgerald to his wife Zelda when she was in a mental institution:

"....and the only sadness is living without you....

You and I have been happy, we haven't been happy just once, we've been happy a thousand times. The chances that the spring, that's for everyone, like the popular songs, may beloong to us too- i see the swan floating on it and - I find it to be you and you only. But swan, float lightly because you are a swan, because by the exquisite curve of your neck the gods gave you some special favour, and even though you fractured it running against some man made bridge, it healed and you sailed onwards. Forget the past - what you can of it, and turn about and swim back home to me, to your haven forever and ever - even though it may seem like a dark cave at times and lit with torches of fury, it is the best refuge for you - turn gently in the waters through which you move and sail back."

Show at the Good Children Gallery

2010-08-10T07:25:00.001-07:00

Strange Birds

Opening Saturday August 14, 6 - 9 p.m.
Exibition Dates: August 14 - September 12

Works on paper by Brad Benischek, The DNA Factory, Heather Vinz,
John Henry Kelly, Kim Jenkins, Louise Riley and Generic Art Solutions.

Featuring the video, Prehistoric Landscape, by Lucy Newman.

part 1.5 i am the black gold of the sun.

2010-08-10T06:52:00.001-07:00

A sneak preview of the making of my piece 'Source', at Eiffel Society. There was a couple of excellent photographers around taking pictures of the show when everything was up, I look forward to receiving those sooo much, but until then, there are these.

As you can see, beer and beds were consumed i n the making of this work ;-)

Special thank you to Tina Rautio and Jessie Vogal the interns that slaved away for me, Tina is a work horse and a very special lady. I COULD not have realised this piece without her.

xxxxx

Eiffel Society - First installment

2010-08-03T14:46:00.001-07:00

What can I say NOLA?

The finest time yet.

Energetic enthusiasmic transformations, wild enterprise, so intimate, generous easy heartfelt friendships, lusty tenderness, sitting in a car listening to great songs, to dancing in surreal courtyards, to nightswimming and dayswimming in salt water, to flashing tampon strings, to conquering fears sweating guts out working 35 feet in the air, to confessing, to weepsoaked massages, to the battery powered record player, to the return of backflips, to being a touch butch, to painting it black, synchronised breakfast and burps, to finding the solutions, to cold room moonshine, to the perky walk, to diving for oyster necklaces, to burning that wood, to sleeping in the 'Supercondux'' to 'kuh kuh puh' to turning the bath to ice tea, to the flashbacks and to the full open belly laughing, to re-releasing, to 'will you float me?', to silk dress waterbombs, to hairstyle curtains, to that glorious view,

to the mutual quest for universal beauty,

so much joy.

To the Life is Art Foundation, here is to always saying yes.

I am somwhere between elation and heartbreak, bittersweet.

But my little baby Nova sang me a spontaneous beautiful lovesong,

so I guess it is just the great beginning of a shift>>>>....

photos taken by Kerry Maloney

2010-07-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

so here is a sneak preview of the god and goddess of all creation, i don't normally do sneak previews, but i have been sewing like a crazy person, since i decided it was a good idea to unpick the ladies entire face when i had less than 24 hours before i left and had to fit in a school play and goodbye with my little girl. i am off home to pack and then off to new orleans in the morning to install these beauties in the ceiling panel of the eiffel society restaurant.

so more later....

prints for sale

2010-07-12T05:06:00.000-07:00

For my last show I did a series of prints on pearlescent paper, the following are in a series of 50 and are available. If you are interested, just drop me a line on my email louise.riley@gmail.com and we can work it out, if you are close come and visit me in my studio! If you are far, I will give you a quote for postage. The first 1 is £30 framed (27.5cm x 22.5cm), the next 4 are £40 framed (32cm x 42cm) . The photos were taken with my point and shoot (not ideal) so everything looks a bit green, in reality, they are a sort of champagney cream.

'Nico'

'Family Tree'

'Flesh & Bone'

'Dewlyweds'

'Mother of Pearl'

The piece de resistence is the final one, a limited edition of 10 at £150 (40.5cm x 50.5cm)

It is called 'Cordelia' and is based on an Indian proverb she shared with me:

the soul would have no rainbow if the eye had no tears - tribe unknown

The colour is hand done, so each one has its own unique quality, the jewel tears are attached to the glass, turning into mini chandeliers hanging from the wood in the frame. This photo does not do it justice, I will have to borrow a decent camera!

girls

2010-07-11T05:04:00.000-07:00

Mia and Cordelia hanging out together in my studio, everytime I looked at them, I got a little thrill of happiness.

For the sewers out there....

2010-06-25T02:30:00.000-07:00

It is a shame that the word sewer is the same for the word about the pipes full of shit that run under the ground, but embroiderer is too specific and, crafter too broad and so often not appropriate. seamstress, no. People of thread. Sounds like a cult, I like it.

So for the people of thread, this article made me laugh, since I have sewn through my own finger twice and am developing a hunchback, I know how easy it is too mame oneself while in the mode.

READ HERE

EIFFEL SOCIETY - COME DISSOLVE WITH US

2010-06-23T04:00:00.000-07:00

I have been in New Orleans for 8 days working and living in a glass octagon, being part of an incredible artists residency that just about blew my mind. In fact it has quite stumped me how to write about it, since it all feels like a weird dream, but I will try.

I will begin with a picture.

This building used to be a restaurant in the Eiffel tower, but it was dismantled into 11,000 pieces and brought to New Orleans. I stayed in this building nearly the entire time, eating, sleeping, working, drinking, peeing with something called a p-style, of which I had varying success. Part of the piece that I made will go into the skylight at the top. It is two embroideries of the amazing Bob Tannen and Jeanne Nathan, artist and creative campaigner, respectively. They were the founding members of the Contemporary Arts Centre in New Orleans.

They let me into their home and photograph them naked after they laid out a table of breakfast, having only been informed that I would be arriving the previous night. When I told Bob that I envisaged them as taking on the the role of the Mother and Father of all creation he scoffed, but when I looked around their house it felt like a rather true description. It seemed like everything Bob touched turned to art.

The people I was working with, Kirsha Kaechele, Pamala Bishop, Tora Lopez, Elliot Coon, Rya Kleinpeter, Daphane Park, Anne Koch, Amanda, what joy.

And the shocking emotion of the collaborative performance piece which will follow soon will be etched in my memory forever.

ILOVENOLA

more here: http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/news/2010-06-15/eiffel-society-life-is-art-collective/

Flesh & Bone opening

2010-05-07T05:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Gang,

The opening for the show has been and gone. If you didn't make it, it is on for 6 weeks and I am really pleased with how it looks in the space. It is such a great bar and does delicious food up to 8-9pm, so there are a million reasons to visit. I will endeavour to spend a serious bit of time photographing everything, but for now, just a sneak preview. The photos of the 'Light Perspective' didn't come out very well! Shock horror! It was up for one night only, so that is a damn shame, you can't even see the sun.... but I know if it gets exhibited again being in a black room was VERY cool. So here

they are....

Bea W, Lurky Me and my darling, Novabug

Cordelia -

"The soul would have no rainbow if the eye had no tears" - Native American proverb

ps- If it isn't obvious, the tears turn into chandeliers....

pps- that I proudly made myself out of bicycle wheels...

SHOWSHOWSHOW invite and press release

2010-04-14T06:48:00.001-07:00

LOUISE RILEY

An erratic mess of desperate embroidery pulls you into Louise Rileys intense and compelling compostitions, built up by layers of fleshy colours and soft textures.

Drawing back the figurative element of her work becomes apparent to reveal surreal narratives with dream-like qualities, subjects caught in waking and slumber, or somwehere in betweenthe two; when waking carries with it the symbolism of that nights adventure.

Bodies sprawl over old matresses which are the canvas for her skin-puncturing needle strokes. Her threads corse through these tattered and patterned backdrops, reminiscent of a retro domesticity.

Louise's body of 3Dwork is extensive, but her hand writing and media mainly work within the practices of hand and craft work. Her stiching is like the messy brush-strokes of an impressionist painter, mixing colours and directions to create a confused yet realistic palette.

Contrasting her chosen materials which generally lean towards the familiar and domestic, Louise's concept practice is deeply scientific, but it is the science of nature to which she obsesses; molecules, chemicals and reproductive systems.

These themes resonate through oursleves and through her work to a point of normality, as they are present, we may barely notice them at all, because it is the naturalism and emotion of her work that is apparent. So the contrast becomes a partnership with the familiar.

This gives a depth and organic movement to her work and the characters she portrays.

The melancholy undertone to her work, partnered with her romantic and decorative sensibility results in some of the most unique and breathtaking art you will ever see.

Not to be misssed!

Show curated by Alex Noble a very multi-talented man: Blog

2010-04-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

Joetta Maue interviewed me for the Mr X Stitch blog, have a read here:

Future Heirlooms: The Beauty in the Stained Bed...

Have a look at her blog too it has some BEautiful work on it:

Little Yellow Birds

Bob

2010-04-01T02:59:00.001-07:00

Do you remember when I got that commission to do a portrait of Bob Marley? Well in my usual spirit I was sewing until about 5mins before I left to catch the plane to deliver it to Virginia and never got any good photographs. I just received this the other day from the lady it was for. She was crazy about him and even had a mural painted along her basement wall that had two scuba-diving Bobs swimming in an underwater scene! I did a bit of research on him as I was a bit Bob'd out, if I heard Buffalo Soldier again I would have stuck pins in my eyes, but I watched some films on youtube of him performing and it was electric, with his hair swinging about like wild snakes.

Amazing.

CrossStitcher Magazine

2010-03-19T04:56:00.001-07:00

So, there will be an interview with moi in CrossStitcher Magazine, issue 225, out on the 25th March. I realise that most of you already have a subscription, but for those who don't, get ye to a WHSmith, this is my first interview.

The picture was taken by my darling Mariaflora who came all the way from Athens to help me ;-)

Dalston Superstore Show

2010-03-19T04:34:00.000-07:00

I am very pleased to announce that I will be having a show at Dalston Superstore in May. I am meeting the curator Alex Noble on Monday and hope he agrees to a wild intervention. I am very excited about making some new work, I have been holding off, because my studio is like some crazy ladies attic it is so jammed full of work, its seems surreal installations are not big sellers! But screw it, I am going to muscle my way in there today and make a start. So I will keep you up to date with dates and private view etc. xx xx

Beware of Embroidery

2010-03-17T06:22:00.002-07:00

Here are the pictures from my show and a little bit about the work:

This body of work explores the affair between nature and society. Are they simbiotic or opposing forces and which is the most powerful? Societal fairness in return for great expectations versus natures flipancy, yet mistifyingly complex system.

In particular, how these phenomena affect relationships and the force of procreation. Louise has looked to biology, chemistry, literally and metaphorically, she has looked to textiles, which its array of grid and dna-like construction to find the solutions, the logic in this chaos. Discarded mattresses, the backbone of the works, for their inbuilt personal history, both corporeal and spiritual,

to create a domestic wonderland of human experience.

'Bjorn'

'Mia'

'Dewlyweds'

The inspiration for Dewlyweds came when searching for something that resembled marriage in the animal kingdom,since the design of marriage had been a societal one and may not have necessarily been what nature intended. When snails mate they shoot calcium spears into eachothers flesh to disable each other, so that fertilisation takes place without the possibility of any other 'suitors' getting involved. This seemed a good comparison.

'Family Tree'

Family Tree began from an interview with a young male gay couple planning their future with view to include children. I was interested in the force to procreate despite obstacles, ie uncomplimentary genitals. Society has overruled nature and has established the possibility of gay couples creating offspring, it is all quite fresh and new and I am yet to decide whether the problems that could arise would be of any greater magnitude to the trials heterosexual couples face. The nest is made from two sets of the molecular structure for testosterone questioning the vitalness of the simple chemistry.

The tree highlights the differences in the modern family tree, the 'nest' and 'birds' are often associated with femaleness. I was impressed with the young men. They definitely felt that there needed to be some sort of female representation in their childrens lives and the depth of their honesty and thoughtfulness with each other perhaps gave them an advantage

over couples who could 'just do it' so to speak.

from this point onwards excuse the underline, at present I cannot figure out how to switch it off

'Light Perspective'

In the words of Dolly Parton:

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

'Mother of Pearl'

There is alot of conflicting information regarding how to bring up children. Less weight is given to motherly instincts when reading information books, the language can be very extreme and it can inspire great fear. In the early times with a baby it can feel very life and death, there is this powerful feeling of nurturing, intimacy and protection, paralleled with great threat, ie cot death and the dangers of the 'family bed'. It is a very intense time, Mother of Pearl is an illustration of this, I even bought the mattress, because of this overwhelming urge to make it sterile for this brand new baby. The whiteness of everything highlights this and the saftey net and glass stalagmites give the sense of these invisible but very present forces.

D's birthday prez

2009-07-31T03:29:00.000-07:00

Made these with a program in the software of my computerised sewing machine. It is pretty exciting, very technical though, takes a while to get it right, but these came out pretty good.
Decorated with some beaded trimmings that are well over 50 years old, so precious.
Want to have this machine working for me 24/7, my robot slave.
This is Meila and Marley.
Aren't they so gorgeous!

Poor Barbies

2009-07-31T03:02:00.000-07:00

Those barbies always make me sad, firstly they were all rejects that came into our lives, then they just lie around looking like skanky ho's and because of that, they seem to get treated so rough, legs always akimbo, poking this way and that. So undignified. Always having their clothes ripped off and their hair mercilessly cut. Never kissed or cuddled. Its just so damn sad.....

Catpower

2009-07-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

I made this cat dress for Nova, I saw the little nose in my local habedashery and inspiration sprung. Unfortunately she wasn't so inspired and thought the black too dull. So much for little girls being adult dolly's. So her very deserving friend Dilys-Mae is going to give it a go. I think it is the most beautifully tailored item I have ever made, I would quite like one in my size, but alas I have run out of fabric and clothes for humans take too long! My attention span correlates with the size of 3 year old clothes.