Vestoj - Slowness - Portraits

This year I worked on some portraits for Vestoj a beautifully curated magazine. This issue is on Slowness and as you know, I am a fan of slow! I have made a number of Englishmen uncomfortable by forcing them to Slow Dance this year as well as my profession! 

I got to sew some great faces and they were picked up in a taxi to be photographed by true professionals, So I haven't actually seen how they have turned out yet, because when we were supposed to pop some champagne and swap magazines and stand around in a circle patting eachothers backs, we had to cancel, because everyone was sick, crying or scared. Ha ha

Here is an idea of what is in the issue, and if it appeals you may just click on the link above to purchase.

This issue explores the politics of time in dress - from our on-going infatuation with nostalgia, the current focus on craftsmanship and all the 'slow movements' that are gathering force in culture to the importance of technological advances in capitalist production and the constantly accelerating pace of society today - something which fashion is right at the centre of. Amongst much else, it contains all from anthropologist John Barker writing on mourning rituals in Papua New Guinea and Anabaptist scholar Donald Kraybill describing Amish fashion to interviews with designers Dries van Noten, Hussein Chalayan, Margaret Howell, Christophe Lemaire and Nigel Cabourn, image portfolios by Mark Borthwick and Justine Kurland and short stories by Lydia Davis and Hortense Calisher. In addition, 300 specially commissioned hand embroidered bookmarks made by Jupe by Jackie have been distributed at random - maybe yours will be the golden ticket!

Me actually being slow

From Rags to Riches of Hope

After I got back from New Orleans this happened:

Post by Louise Riley.

I literally just wanted to do 5 portraits and put it behind me, but in the end 40 people got in touch, because 30 people had shared the post that reached more than 7000 people (whatever that means in fb language). 

It really cheered me up! Sometimes the internet is quite amazing.

So here are some of the ones I have done so far...

This is Allison Bell an Opera singer that I met in New Orleans shortly before, who originates from Tasmania and lives about 10 minutes down the road from me! I got a chance to very quickly take a picture of the shadow before she came to pick it up, lovely and spooky isn't it?

Next up we have 

The Golden Girls

I went to school with twin sisters Allison and Mary Golden, although Mary is now Ayers.

Anyway, Mary is a bit of a hero of mine for various reasons and I look forward to sewing her larger when I have a nice big meaty show to produce for!

This the very handsome Thomas, a friend commissioned it for their anniversary and it was the first one I had framed, which actually turned out to be a disaster as when I picked it up, there was something about it making me uneasy, it wasn't quite right, so I had to get the guy to do it all over again and we tried quite a few things out to get it right. I am not usually so fussy,but once I had the idea in my head, I had to go with it. It turned and was part of the many many lessons I have been learning while working on this project.

This is Joey. He is my School friends husband. I was a bit pissed off, because she had a baby just before Christmas and totally overshadowed my imitation mini me with a real mini me! haha. He had really good hair and the lovely colours of the sunset on his face were a joy. really vibrant. I also added just some simple net layers to set the scene a bit more as it was really breathtaking. Framed it differently, in a box frame and in relief rather than behind a matt. It worked as this one had more relief sewing and I wanted it to be free as the image had so much freedom within it.

This is the first portrait I have done of a kid, I was nervous, hoping that it didn't look like Benjamin Button, but she came out very sweet. That colour and texture of blond hair that only seems to exist in the under fives was just beautiful to sew and her Dad was clever to pick a picture with interesting shadows and colour tones. I stretched it over a mushroom colour board to bring out that glowing halo, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture and this picture is just with my phone, sometimes you just don't get the time to really sit down and photograph things and experiment with light, which is really sad, as once you hand it over that is all that is left for you....

My work station du jour

I shall write about this beauty later as it hasn't quite reached its destination, but I had to share it...

Just getting the next batch ready to sew. 

Back to work!

Hussein Chalayan and recent interview

I have been working for the magazine Vestoj doing a series of portraits, to be launched in Paris this month. Below is Hussein Chalayan and a rough draft of the interview with moi.

I started sewing when I was 16. My teacher showed me how to thread up a sewing machine on a little table in the corridor and that was it. The freedom she gave me was key, she just let me play with it and it began a lifelong love of curiosity of what I could do with thread. I got really into hand sewing a few years later in my glass house studio in my first home in West Ham. It was quieter and portable and in some ways quicker, I used to make a cup of tea with a brandy in it after working in an art store all day and sew for hours.

I liked the slowness of sewing, I tried painting, but it always seemed so surface to me, I could go into autopilot with it, whereas with sewing I was totally engaged, point at a stitch and I could tell you what I was thinking at that moment. There are two main things I think about when I am sewing that correspond with the two ways that I work, after years of doing it I have figured out the pattern. Firstly to lay out bolder areas, I find myself thinking about things that have bugged me, injustices small and large and it plays out in a big obsessive circle as I clumsily and bravely lay out the meat of it. Then the next phase it to consolidate and refine, to correct mistakes and to find balance, I often find myself writing letters to loved ones in my head, often apologies, suddenly all the flaws appear and I apologise and forgive. I go through this pattern several times throughout a piece.

The music I listen to is also quite obsessive and narrow, I mostly listen to The Knife and have done for years and it never really gets old, while doing Margaret Howell, I actually listened to Chiquitita, SOS and Fernando, by ABBA, on repeat. They have this euphoric bittersweetness that makes me want to cry with joy and makes me feel like all my doors and windows are open.

While I was sewing Cristophe Lemaire, I watched all my favourite Robin Williams films on the eve of the sad news, it took 5 films and quite a lot of Mork and Mindy's.

Hussein was the first portrait I sewed, it was the middle of summer and I had ravaged through the impenetrable ivy wall that had absorbed my garden. It seemed the most serendipitous thing to do to work outside, So I made good headway and pottered off to smoke a roll up and when I heard a weird noise I turned around and saw a moth had been caught in the net and a bird came down and pecked a hole right through the middle of his forehead to get at it. I hoped he didn't get a headache, sometimes sewing someone's portrait can feel a bit voodooish.

I have big dreams for my work and sometimes they are too big. I think these usually come when I am at the peak of my caffeine high and often roll around my head and then thrash around into impossibility by the inevitable crash, only to be resurrected next time. But I plan to live a long life full of art and when something rolls around for some time, I usually manage to create it, even if not quite the scale of my dreams.

My daughter inspires me a lot, she is a little wizardess and I often find when I back track on a piece that I can see a direct link to something we have discussed. The piece I am making for the New Orleans Biennial, I tracked back to her beautiful handmade birthday book I made her that she filled with booby trap designs.

My favourite and least favourite part of the day is putting my daughter to bed, we talk about things, read adventure books and sing songs and it's so lovely, but I always have a list of things I am supposed to do afterwards and I hardly ever can. I am such a sensual fuck, that the warmth of her little body and the feeling of the silky quilt and the soft singing voice and then her little hot sleepy breath, that's so heady, and I am so incredibly content, but utterly useless and more often than not I float into bed and the dishes wait till morning....