A Stitch for Every Sound

A Stitch for Every Sound was presented as part of Woven Expression: Narrating Stories through Patterns, an exhibition curated by 2022/23 MA Curating and Collections students at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL, in collaboration with the Archives and Special Collections Centre (ASCC) at London College of Communication, and Chelsea Space. Curators exhibition statement: Patterns are a universal element, forming a projection of experience which extends into an infinite field. They serve as an instrument to interpret and perceive the world. Woven Expression investigates patterns as a language, within diverse mediums, to demonstrate its communicative capabilities in the context of contemporary art. The exhibition takes inspiration from the archive of British weaver and educator Barbara Sawyer (1919–1982), who taught at Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts for over 30 years. Sawyer’s textile works have recently been catalogued at the ASCC. In dialogue with the archival material, the works of six contemporary artists – Alexandru Balgiu, Claire Barber, Srabani Ghosh, Egle Jauncems, Yelena Popova, and Patricia Tavares – expand on the communicative dimensions of patterns through sculpture, installation, sound, and writing. The patterns demonstrated in Sawyer's work were methodically annotated and unpacked in her sketchbooks and teaching notes. Reflecting on this, Woven Expression looks at how patterns can be used to capture, document and respond to specific memories, histories and experiences. Textile patterns have traditionally embodied language, poetry, and singing, encoding symbolic meanings in the arrays and colours of warp and weft. While Sawyer's archive offers extensive examples of patterns in weaving, the exhibition expands beyond textiles, investigating the application of patterns in various media across contemporary artists' practices. MA Curating and Collections Students, July 2023