OFF THE WALL

Crafts Study Centre, Farnham

6 December 2005 — 24 February 2006

South Hill Park, Bracknell

25 March — 7 May 2006

JILLY EDWARDS has been exploring the theme of the ‘The Journey’ for some time, recording her physical journeys in her highly detailed sketchbooks, interpreting this documentation through the medium of tapestry. Her exhibition at the Daiwa Anglo-japanese Foundation in London (2002) was my introduction to this approach to her work.

I first saw the exhibition Off the Wall at the Crafts Study Centre in Famham. In that installation the I 2m x 5cm cinematic reel of tapestry — Textures of Memory— wound its way between the pillars and around the room, revealing image after image as we slowly moved past each frame of Edwards’ journey.

The installation at South Hill Park relays a different narrative, one of a more intimate discovery. The work is installed in glass cabinets, initially there is the feeling of artefacts from another time, laid out for inspection. But as we look we see that the reels of tapestry spill out from their containers, restlessly moving within the cabinets, almost as if searching for a way out — and away. The journey is less visible, more hinted at than exposed. In the search for clues our concentration is focused on the verbal, visual, textural, descriptions of the experiences of other places, other times.

The exhibition theme places much emphasis on process, the idea of ‘becoming’. The experience of the journey becomes the notation in the sketchbooks, the notation in the sketchbooks becomes the samples, the samples become the reel, the reel becomes the metaphor for the journey, the metaphor becomes a journey in itself. Small works, describing a moment in time, are caught in time - suspended in Perspex boxes. Train and tube tickets, the ephemera of any journey, are given a permanency as they are embroidered and sewn together to form a textural record of journeys made.

Jilly Edwards is a tapestry weaver who always demonstrates a highly sensitive understanding of technique, material and colour. In the past, she has been noted for her luxurious use of colour. In this exhibition, however; there is a sense of restraint. Rather than using the interaction of vibrant colour; she explores the potential of marks that ‘are reduced to signs and symbols, like runes or keys on a map or bar codes, becoming a personal language.

In the larger works, particularly Three Dimensional Line, Edwards has discovered a landscape both internal and external in which she explores the way that her vocabulary of marks reflect the contemplative nature of the work.

The positioning of her two larger works at the entrance to the Bracknell Gallery, away from the main body of the exhibition, placed them in a somewhat isolated position. However; it did allow for an undistracted and rewarding contemplation of these pieces. Off the Wall is an exhibition in which nothing is passive, there is a sense of quiet movement forward, of questioning, of ‘becoming’. I look forward to the next stages of Jilly Edwards’ journey, long may it continue.

Lesley Millar

Embroidery July/August 2006