Systems
Awarded highly commended – Monkton Arts Prize 2024/25
‘We can’t control systems or figure them out, but we can learn to dance with them.’
Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems
Systems are everywhere, from the tiniest clusters of atoms to vast solar systems. Human systems come in physical forms such as engines or functioning, societal forms such as health, education and political. Systems of all kinds connect, interact, and influence one another in many multiple layers. The resilience of a system is dependent on its diversity and balance. Variety is the key whether it is the human diet or the whole eco system of planet Earth.
Understanding a system holistically is vital. With our climate crisis, it is not simply enough to find a solution, planting thousands of trees is no substitute for saving an ancient forest.
My embroidered sculpture is an imagined eco system made up of multiple layers. Layers that do not form in straight lines or uniform shapes, sizes. Layers that can be solid, fluid, or invisible as air. I aim to illustrate how a healthy eco system is always evolving with parts dying and new parts appearing. The construction celebrates this system of renewal, while allowing traces of the past to be glimpsed.
I have used nature’s eco systems as inspiration rather than the simpler human made systems. My embroidered sculpture conveys the importance of diversity, the almost infinite layers of tiny organisms and how closely their eco systems are to each other.
Most of the materials are scraps or dead stock fabric and threads. The core cylinder base is a cardboard packaging tube filled with ends of fabric. The fabric and at least 50% of the threads are remnants of surplus stock leftover from my mother’s haberdashery shop many years ago. Each of the glass beads I have handmade individually specifically for the artwork.
I experimented with a range of stitches and have chosen those that link closely with each other – a system within themselves. These stitches include buttonhole, spiral trellis, raised stem, couching and straight.
Shades of yellow, green, turquoise, and blue are intentionally nature like for this abstract, sculptural representation of an eco-system.
Living near the coast on the Isle of Wight and tending to my garden, it is in both these places I have seen some worrying environmental changes. Currently I am exploring ways to use embroidery to express and illustrate my concerns for the planet.
My embroidered sculpture is an imagined eco system made up of layers of hand embroidery and handmade glass beads. A healthy eco system is always evolving with parts dying and new parts appearing. The construction celebrates this system of renewal, while also glimpsing those of the past.
