The school run in September comes with a familiar choreography: blazers buttoned in a rush, ties knotted with fumbling fingers, shoes located with exasperation at the last possible minute. For some parents, the uniform is a small mercy, one less decision in a morning already crowded with them. For others, it can often raise a little worry: that uniform squashes the ability to express oneself before the day has even started. Both camps are, in their own way, thinking about clothing as a system of rules. So is the artist Amelia Cross.
Sewn Painting by Amelia Cross
Cross trained in bespoke tailoring at the London College of Fashion before moving into painting at the Royal College of Art, and her work sits precisely at the seam between those two disciplines. She has developed what she calls the "sewn painting": a surface that is painted and constructed at once, built with needle and thread as much as brush and pigment. The result refuses to settle into either category. A jacket lapel might be stitched into raw linen, its shadow real and structural, while an identical shadow beside it is entirely painted on. The eye is asked to decide which is which, and often gets it wrong...
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Image Credits:
Lead: Sewn Painting by Amelia Cross. Courtesy of the artist and Incubator Gallery.
All further images as credited in captions.