Colours, Journeys and Landscapes Ian Wilson

Bundu Stones, 1998 Cotton warp. Wool, cotton, linen weft. 70cm x 120cm Private collection Bundu Stones 2, 2000 Cotton warp. Wool, cotton, linen weft. 12cm x 15cm

Sacred Stones, 1999 Cotton warp. Wool, cotton, linen weft. 12cm x 15cm

Colours, Journeys and Landscapes

It is Jilly Edwards’s individual ‘vision’, her particular insights and responses to emotions and memories, to colours, journeys and landscapes – these vital elements of the human experience – which the skill and artistry of her craftsmanship transmute and interpret in her tapestries. This retrospective collection of Edwards’ weavings mounted by Ruthin Craft Centre enables us to see how characterising thematic strands occur in her work, and how these motifs traverse time and distance to re-appear in fresh interpretations. We can follow the confluence of developments, the changes thus effected and the emergence of new themes. Alongside the weavings in this exhibition are the journals, sketches and finished drawings – these are not just aide-mémoires, but essential factors in Edwards’ creative process. She empties her mind into the journals while travelling, and has written that ‘my “journeying” feels like a spiral movement, a cultural journey and daily task; enhancing the thoughts and ideas that become the finished work.’ 1

Also being shown are the grid-like structures which Edwards assembles from small sectional boxes of transparent Perspex and in which she devises installations. These are titled Traveller’s Samples, a name which refers to the childhood expeditions she made with her father who was a travelling salesman. The individual appeal of the objects can be appreciated, each isolated within a separate ‘frame’, while a wider viewpoint, shows these shells, stones, tins, woven strips and words functioning as contributors to the creation of a larger whole. Edwards calls these installations ‘the bigger stories’ of the strip-weavings which she started making after visiting Japan in 2002. In the latter, every segment is

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part of a journey, and the segments – each the size of railway ticket – are marked off from one other, but also come together to form a long, scroll-like ‘document’. The rolled-up portions which are not visible to the eye remind us of the pleasures of not always seeing the whole, while simultaneously, and conversely, the unrolled lengths manifest Edwards’ fascination with the fact that by sewing down the edges ‘the warp becomes an armature’ and one can show the back of the fabric. Edwards has given much thought as to how to express her desire for transparency and lucidity. This objective is achieved by exploiting the space at Ruthin Craft Centre to enable visitors to see something of both sides of these narrow tapestries. It is with regard to pieces such as these that one can understand the admiration which Edwards feels for the artist Agnes Martin of whose paintings she has said, ‘I love the linear – it can be used in so many ways.’ This is a remark which is also profoundly applicable to her own oeuvre. Matthew’s Summer Garden (1980) – made while Edwards was studying in the Tapestry Department of Edinburgh College of Art – sees her, for the first time, moving away from an earlier representative approach and creating, within the parameters of a grey grid, a spectrum ranging from palest yellow to dark black. These slender, horizontally-layered bands of colour celebrate the sensuous delights of what the artist herself has described as the ‘wonderful discoveries of colour to be made whilst researching our involvement with the landscape.’ 2

It was in Australia that Edwards met with further impetus for the series of weavings based on standing stones which are compelling examples of abstract expressionism. Although we cannot see one of her signal interpretations of this theme, Bundu Stones (1998) as it spends its time travelling between its owners’ homes in Israel and Sweden, this is a subject which Edwards also visited in Northern Echoes (1991) Here, three vertical shapes in strong red, blue and

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Calm and Cool, 2000 Cotton warp. Wool, cotton, linen weft. 12cm x 18cm

Sketchbook page: Watercolour and pencil.

Sense of Summer, 2000 Cotton warp. Wool, cotton, linen weft. 60cm x 125cm Private collection

A Journey of a Lifetime, 2000 Cotton warp. Wool, cotton, linen weft. 60cm x 135cm Collection of Customs House, South Shields

Southern Summer, 2001 Cotton warp. Wool, cotton weft. 3cm x 8cm

Early Morning, 1999 Cotton warp. Wool, cotton weft. 3cm x 11cm yellow stand out against a dark and sombre background, evocative, perhaps, of rituals within the winter night; it is particularly the slash of yellow which burns and glows like a light in darkness. Not wishing to particularise or clamp an interpretive grid onto these works, one should acknowledge how the verticals of bold colour in Northern Echoes are a form of mark-making found in many of the pages of the journals as well as in small-scale weavings such as Southern Summer (3 x 8cm). It is difficult to be in the presence of Jilly Edwards’ weavings and not respond to the rhythms set up by the interplay of the shapes within these tapestries. The ‘canvas’ of Summer Time (1998) is dominated by the swooping movement of two curved forms whose intersection in the centre of the image brings about changes in their colouration. The title of Ma (2001) derives from an exclamation of delight and surprise uttered by a group of Japanese visitors when encountering the work in Edwards’ studio. This weaving – which for its maker represents the culmination of a journey in both practical and spiritual terms – has broad horizontal bands of dark colour along the upper and lower edges which ‘frame’ the space within which differently-shaped areas in a variety of blues robustly proclaim their presence. The viewing eye becomes involved in the juxtaposed relationship of a large rectangle with two forms, one dark blue, the other off-white which suggest vessels, perhaps boats, cups or pots. Another characteristic of Edwards’ tapestries is the way in which they are conducive to states of contemplation. Silent Red Bowl (1998), is a small work – it measures only 3 x 12cm – but, almost ineluctably, it leads one to meditate upon the significance of quietness, absence and emptiness. This interpretation is borne out by the words which Edwards cites above a photograph of this work in the Portfolio Series monograph devoted to her work, namely, that ‘archaeological sites have spaces that are as important as the objects.’

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This exhibition enables us to experience and appreciate the smaller scale of Edwards’ narrower strip weavings. Their width is usually 5cm, but they vary greatly in length, some reaching 12m, which is the measurement defining ‘broadcloth’. It is this diversity which serves as a reminder that for Edwards the short daily trips and the long trans-continental expeditions each have their own import. These coils suggest reels of film or great rolls of tickets – and both these images are sympathetic to their maker’s practice and preoccupations. Like her journals, film is a medium of both recording and creativity, and tickets, whether for a local train or long-haul flight occupy a special position in Edwards’ world. They are signifiers of the travels which as a younger person she had not envisaged herself making, and as such are invested and imbued with special relevance. The original identity of the tickets which appear in the ‘Traveller’s Samples’ installations is much altered, for they are so painted, pasted and written upon that they become tiny, richly-layered canvases. Decorated with oil pastel, script, gold leaf and plasterboard tape with its adhesive and open, gauze-like qualities, some also have rows of minuscule mountains in zigzag stitching, what Edwards terms ‘sewing the line.’ Like the Perspex boxes, the display of these scrolls need not be a matter of bright lights and bravura. ‘I don’t want things screaming out at me,’ she has said with reference to the manner of presentation. The quiet strength of Jilly Edwards’ words, colours and weaving draws us into reflection upon her journeys and hearten us in the making of our own.

Ian Wilson Writer and Lecturer on Applied Arts and Design

1. Art Textiles of the World – Great Britain Vol 3 (2006) ed by Matthew Koumis. Brighton: Telos Art Publishing. p.98 2. Jilly Edwards Portfolio Series (2000) ed by Matthew Koumis. Winchester: Telos Art Publishing. p.37

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Silent Red Bowl, 1998 Cotton warp. Cotton, linen, wool weft. 3cm x 12cm Private Collection

Sketchbook page: Pastels. Postcard and seal stamp.

Ma, 2001 Cotton warp. Wool, cotton, linen, chenille weft. 90cm x 230cm

above & right: Sketchbook pages, 2003/4 Watercolours, pencil, crayon, railway tickets & sweet wrappers. Size A5

overleaf: top left to right High Tide – Full Moon, 2004 Markings + Tracking, 2004 Migrancy + Identity, 2004 Landscape + Memory, 2003 Miles of Silence, 2004 Oral + Visual, 2005 Cotton warp. Wool, cotton, linen weft/mohair weft. All 5cm x 22cm

overleaf right: Sampling + Practice, 2003 Suspended in acrylic box. 5cm x 22cm (boxed size: 10cm x 30cm x 5cm) Kendal to Kyoto, 2004 5cm x 100cm Both: Cotton warp. Wool, cotton, linen weft.

Around the Red Hills, 2011 Cotton warp. Wool, cotton, linen weft. 90cm x 210cm

Ruthin sketches, Red Hill a–i, 2011 Cotton warp. Wool, cotton, linen weft. 5cm x 10cm