When Odette Campbell entered a Bargello needlepoint of Digbeth’s architecture into an open call at Seventh Circle in Birmingham, she was hoping, like most entrants, for a place on the wall, and what she won was the whole room, with a private view thrown in.
Odette is a Black Country fibre artist who works in Bargello needlepoint, the flat-stitch technique that builds flame and wave patterns row by row and is traditionally tied to Renaissance Italy. Her subject is the architecture of Birmingham and the Black Country, from Brutalist concrete to the industrial weight of Digbeth. Stitched in wool, those rigid forms soften and warm, and colour slides across the surface until solid walls seem to move. Bridget Riley and Anni Albers sit among her influences, and so does Black Country Type.
The Unfinished Arches, Odette Campbell
Renaissance was the first open call run by Seventh Circle, and its brief invited artists to explore transformation and the courage to begin again. Odette answered by dropping stitches on purpose and letting the canvas show, with spray paint and ink layered beneath the wool. Those gaps and loosened threads set growth against decay, so each piece reads as a building caught mid-change. The prize was a solo exhibition, and Under Construction, on from 16 October to 1 November, is the result...
(...)
Want to read more of this article?
ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?
Magazine subscribers automatically get free access to all of our online content.
We send the access code by email with the publication of each issue. You will also find it on the envelope containing your magazine.
Please note the access code changes every issue.
We are proud to be a subscriber-funded publication with members in 185 countries. We know our readership is passionate about textiles, so we invite you to help us preserve and promote the stories, memories, and histories that fabric holds.
. . .
Image Credits:
Lead: Bargello by Odette Campbell.
All further images as credited in captions.