Image: Detail of haute couture embroidery.

Join us on Wednesday 9 June for an evening of discussion on the different forms stitching and sewing can take in the work of our exciting panel of guest speakers. From stitching as a form of artistic expression and subversive stitching, to intricate embellishment and the different journeys stitched narratives can take us on, we will be hearing from experts who have a treasure trove of knowledge and experience to share. Read on to find out more about some of our speakers...

Rebecca Devaney is a textile artist and researcher. Following her MFA in Textile Art and Artefact at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, she won the prestigious Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award (2015), to research hand embroidery in Mexico. The resulting exhibition, Bordados, a collection of photographs, interviews, and textiles, has been presented internationally. In 2018, following her graduation from the prestigious École Lesage, Paris, Rebecca worked as a professional haute couture embroiderer for Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Dior, Valentino, Givenchy, and Louis Vuitton. Her research into the origins, history and heritage of haute couture embroidery was selected for the ICOM Costume conference at Versailles (2020) and published in the Embellishment exhibition catalogue at the Hasselt Museum of Fashion, Belgium. Now a go-to authority of French couture embroidery, in 2019 Rebecca established Textile Tours of Paris to share her love of the rich heritage of textiles woven through the fabric of Paris.

Image: Takashi Iwasaki's work.

Born in Hokkaido, Japan, Takashi Iwasaki moved to Winnipeg to study fine arts at the University of Manitoba in 2002, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Attracted to Winnipeg's vibrant and supportive arts community, he gained permanent resident status in Canada and now lives and works in Winnipeg and calls it his new hometown. Iwasaki's art practice diverges into many mediums from embroidery, paintings, collages, to sculptures; inspired by things and events which surround his daily life as sources of his creation. Most of his recent works are either visual recordings of his daily life or visualisation of his imaginary worlds or landscapes that no one would see unless otherwise depicted. Most shapes and colours have meanings and origins that are very significant to him in the way he feels them, therefore they represent and reflect his state of mind.

Image: Pascal Monteil. Image courtesy Celia Pernot and Gallery Regala.

Pascal Monteil has been a weaver in Tabriz, a ceramist in Kyoto, an icon painter in Istanbul and a boatman in Calcutta. After studying fine arts at Villa Arson, France, he travelled to Asia where his work with textiles and stitching began. Following a retrospective "I no longer recognize the sun" at the Château de Tarascon in 2017, he decided to set up his studio in Arles. On hemp canvas, Pascal Monteil weaves thread like a line of gouache, watercolour, thick oil or charcoal, evoking epic histories, tales of exiles, mystical experiences, death and religious faith in a whirlwind of striking colours. We featured Pascal in one of our recent articles, The Eye of the Needle: Pascal Monteil's Embroidery. You can read this in Issue 99 Home.

More speakers, including Sophie Carr, Leo Chiachio and Daniel Giannone to be announced soon. Find out more, and book tickets on the event page: Sew Far So Good