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LONDON CRAFT WEEK: MEMORY GARDEN BY CECILIA CHARLTON

LONDON CRAFT WEEK: MEMORY GARDEN BY CECILIA CHARLTON

April 30, 2023
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Cecilia Charlton is a London based American artist and graduate from the MA Painting programme at the Royal College of Art London in 2018. Working between painting and textile mediums, Charlton creates handmade embroidered and woven works that reference formal histories of abstraction. Each work a bold representation of an artist confident in her use of colour and geometric pattern.
But beyond the visual pleasure and textural beauty of each piece, Charlton uses the medium of textiles as a means to engage personally and intimately, both in context to a specific space and audience.



For London Craft Week Charlton has come together with the Garden Museum in Lambeth. Exhibiting a series of large scale handmade site specific weavings, displayed in the nave of the museum.

The woven works draw parallels between textile and gardening practices, the tranquil process of crafting textiles by hand, akin to the calmness and serenity felt when spending time immersed within nature. Whilst highlighting the patience required to nurture the growth of both the garden and the hand woven cloth. Inviting a sense of slowness into each of our lives, asking us to engage more sensitively with the environment that surrounds us.



Exploring the relationship between human - textile, human-nature, the exhibit entitled Memory Garden references the nostalgic reminders of the sensorial qualities flora and fauna bring. The aromatic fragrances of plants such as lavender perhaps transporting us back to a childhood memory or perhaps the reminder of a loved one. Plants have an ability to connect so viscerally and remain with us until we are presented with them once again, through sight or smell. That runs true of textiles also. Cloth that surrounds us often in the most daily and simple ways, the linen curtains that hang from our window or the comfort of pulling on a cosy wool jumper on a cold day. The tactility of textiles travels with us, always. Leaving lasting textural traces and memories that remain so deep within.

Presenting four new woven works, for each design Charlton references a different flora that holds personal resonance with her, including lavender, peonies, lilies and hydrangeas. Ahead of the show I had the chance to catch up with Charlton and find out more about her inspiration behind ‘Memory Garden’ .....



As the the context in which your woven pieces are displayed is very important to the narrative and the way in which the observer interacts with the cloth, how did the location of the Garden Museum inspire the works?
Spending time in the garden is a strong memory of my childhood. We didn't have an enormous garden, but in particular I remember there was an ivy patch that my mother was determined to rid of weeds. It was always very important to take the weed out with the root in tact. We also had a lilac bush, and peonies that lined the walkway to the garage. These flowers stay so much in my mind, perhaps because of the distinctive aroma and scent's ability to lodge in one's limbic system. One major theme in my practice is the subconscious, and the idea that craft processes can facilitate a relationship with the deeper recesses of our minds. So it just fit to make artworks for the Garden Museum around flowers from my memories using the process of weaving.

The Garden Museum being a converted church seemed completely serendipitous as well. My interest in pattern originated from mosaic decorations in highly patterned sanctuaries, and ideas of transcendence have appeared more and more in my recents works. I do not ascribe to organised religion, but have an interest in what all religions do at their best - connect us to concepts that exist beyond our earthly selves.

Your chosen flora have such strong symbols of the British garden, what drew you to this selection?
These flowers all have personal significance to me. The peonies from my childhood, the lavender in my struggles to find sleep, hydrangeas always make me think of my mother, and lilies have appeared in various times throughout my life. The capacity for flowers to stand in for archetypes or emotions, their symbolic use in art history as well as in lived culture - flowers seem to have a potent presence for their delicate nature. I am very interested in mediums that represent such duality - flowers, like textiles, are punchy yet fragile, eternal yet ephemeral.
To create each work Charlton uses the techniques of overshot weaving, a woven process using two types of weft yarns and floats to create a pattern that is often geometric. And bargello embroidery, a tapestry technique that uses straight flat stitches to create motifs, typically dense and colourful in their design. Each day between 14:00 - 16:00 BST(British Summer Time, London, UK) Charlton will be performing a live demonstration, introducing visitors to the process of both of these handcrafted techniques.



On both Thursday 11 May and Saturday 13 May there is the opportunity to join Charlton between 12:00 - 14:00 BST (British Summer Time, London, UK) in a drop-in workshop and try for yourself the art of bargello embroidery. Charlton will give a short introduction on her work, the bargello technique and then be on hand to offer guidance and support. Whilst you experience the intimate bonds thread can form when people are brought together through stitch. Creating their own individual embroidered piece to take home, their own personal memory and reminder of this special event.

“My hope with these events is always that people leave feeling more connected to each other and to their own creative voice.”

Participants will be welcomed to contribute to a communal artwork that will be set up on a large embroidery frame. These workshops will be drop in and thus do not require booking, They are part of the ‘Branch Out’ programme, an initiative facilitated by the Garden Museum to bring free events and workshops to wider communities.

Opening times are Monday - Sunday, 10:00 - 17:00 BST (British Summer Time, London, UK). Access to Cecilia Charlton: Memory Garden is free of charge, but entry to the Garden Museum galleries requires paid admission which can be purchased on site or booked online. Find out more here.

Guest edited by Katerina Knight
Images courtesy of Felix Speller
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