Damien Hirst

Leeds Art Gallery has a Damien Hirst exhibition on until the end of October.
Hirst has strong links with Leeds, he grew up in the city and attended Leeds College of Art and Design before shooting to national and international prominence in the 1990s with his groundbreaking and controversial works.
The exhibition is be the first dedicated display of Hirst’s work ever seen in Leeds, and traces the artist’s career from his student days to his later works after he had established himself as one of the world’s highest profile artists.
ARTIST ROOMS On Tour is an inspired partnership with the Art Fund - the fundraising charity for works of art, making available the ARTIST ROOMS collection of international contemporary art to galleries throughout the UK. ARTIST ROOMS is jointly owned by Tate and National Galleries of Scotland and was established through The d’Offay Donation in 2008, with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund and the Scottish and British Governments.

Sadly no pictures allowed, which from an artist steeped in promotion is quite ironic, though obviously wanting to control all images in the public domain.

I was inspired by the work but to be honest I found the response to the exhibition by students of the BA Visual Communication course at Leeds College of Art more inspiring and exciting. They were looking at the perceptions of their audience and the range of the audience and the thoughts behind their curated choices were considered and thought provoking.

Inlaid Patchwork

Attended a conference at Leeds City Museum based on the 'Inlaid Patchwork in Europe from the 1500 to the Present' on show at Leeds Art Gallery at the moment. It was led by one of the German curators and conservator Salwa Joram, who was a passionate speaker and full of  so much enthusiasm for the topic it was infectious. Inlaid patchwork is made of wool cloth (plain weave wool which is then felted, which is reminiscent of the felt hoods we use in millinery), usually from the offcuts from tailoring, as there was no fraying there was little wastage. The earliest example in the exhibition is a 17th century horse blanket created for the christening of a Saxony prince, really beautifully made and shows counter change. Lots of the pieces that survive were alter cloths from Silensia a renowned wool production area in Germany, also Scandinavia and Switzerland. The Berlin Museum has been sourcing the pieces around the word since the 1980's.

Traditional Altar Cloth

2009

The journey of this form of patchwork then moved to England where they were made by tailors and the hours to make them would be recorded,  one stated it was 18 years in the making, they would then be toured around a region for an entry fee. The quality of manufacture was much higher and used to promote the skill of the tailor. Leeds City Museum has an exceptional example of this as does Biggar Museum outside Glasgow. All very fascinating and enlightening.

I particularly loved the modern version made by a German textile artist Ursell Arndt based on the Berlin Wall and Graffiti around the city, some nice Banksy as well. The work was so intense that she had to create a co-operative to help her, it took 20 women 4 months, it is exquisitely made and difficult to comprehend pulling it all together as the pieces are so random.

Detail of Graffiti piece

Indulgence