We are delighted to welcome Echoes of Iceland back to the Allen Gallery, following the group's highly successful show in 2022.
In April 2023 the group of professional textile artists made a return trip to the Icelandic Textile Centre in Blönduós on the north coast of Iceland. Exploring the landscape, culture, textile heritage and local materials, and using the facilities available at the Centre the artists were able to make a wide-ranging, fascinating body of work in response to their time spent there.
This exhibition includes work made whilst in Iceland and on their return. The artists have used techniques including weaving, knitting, felting, stitching and basketry, much of it using local materials.
About the Artists:
Jennifer Jones, a woven textile artist and designer whose focus during the trip was on the marks and impressions made by geological events, the natural world, the atmosphere, weather and the wildlife.
Tara Kennedy, who has created textile wall hangings and sculptures inspired by the Winter landscape of Iceland. They involve the change of season to Spring, with thawing snowy shorelines and streams of melting ice.
Pieces are knitted, stitched, wrapped and felted, all using Icelandic materials in the cool colours of the surrounding space.
Annette Mills, who works with basket-making techniques to explore process, place and transitional space. Using basketry as a form of journaling she explores how her tactile language reveals previously unknown aspects of her creative process. Her experimental studies act as markers which indicate when changes occur in her creative process and finally Delia Salter, who uses locally sourced materials (wool and horsehair) to reference the changing landscape as well as the wildlife that inhabit it. Also, by researching traditional Icelandic patterns and translating them into knitting designs she highlights the important and valued heritage of Icelandic textiles.
