I am an academic who uses making to distill the intensity of critical thinking. My textile practice is about liberation.

To work intuitively. To just be.

In the development of my textile narrative I am drawn to the idea of rough simplicity. These works incorporate the dynamics of broad ink strokes and the unpredictability of torn paper. They are assembled like fragments of cloth secured by gestures of stitch. A graphic line anchors the composition. Here line is force.

The element of quiet and intensity connects with my interest in the street, the tension of divergent spaces—country, city, inland, coast—that are an integral part of my lived experience. The street is the exterior fabric of a place, necessary, pervasive, where society leaves its mark.

Within this maelstrom of the street lurks the X, which I am drawn to like so many before me. The X is present in the architecture of the street, it marks locations and represents the anonymity of the street. For me the X is reassurance and agency. It allows one to be.

My training in textiles and its history include: a B.A. (Hons) Degree in Fashion and Textile Design at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication (1983-5), Bromley; an MA in the History of Design, a joint course at the Royal College of Art and Victoria and Albert Museum, London; a number of textile courses at West Dean College, Sussex and the City Lit, London, notably the Textiles 2: Advance Practice Course at the latter (2010-11).

 

Academic Profile: I am Professor of Dress, Diaspora and Transnationalism at the University of the Arts London, based at Chelsea College of Arts.

 

I am a member of Red Herring Studios:
http://www.redherringstudios.org/index.php/members