Part 5- Exhibition Folio and Review
Assignment 5 Review- Exercise 1 Press Release
Gillian Morris Student No. 511388
Gillian Morris – ‘Visual Representations of Mental Distress and Recovery’
Hanson Street, Glasgow
1-3 October, Fri-Sun 10-4
Art Exhibition by Gillian Morris Opens Friday 1st October, 2021 at Wasps, Hanson Street, Dennistoun, Glasgow
A Series of Material Statements-Visual Representations of Mental Distress and Recovery (2021)
This new solo exhibition by Gillian Morris shows previously unseen printed and stitched textile work within the exhibition space at the Wasps Artist Studio Complex. The exhibition features three large scale dyed and printed vintage linen wall hangings, one large scale five-panel dyed and printed vintage linen central installation with stitch and a series of framed dyed and printed vintage linen sampling pieces from Friday 1st October until Sunday 3rd October 2021.
More information about the exhibition and the artist can be found at: https://weaveprint.com/
In the exhibition A Series of Material Statements-Visual Representations of Mental Distress and Recovery (2021), Gillian Morris explores the material qualities of the vintage linen bedsheets and threads to help to reinforce the narrative, to tell the story of mental crisis through therapy to mental recovery through their strength, resilience, robustness, and enhanced capacity for repair. The work is autobiographical in nature and depicts real-life circumstances emotionally through the textile artists experiences as a psychologist. The scale of intuitive relating with the materials in process communicate the scale of emotional resonance felt within the therapeutic therapy process itself as a psychologist.
This artist has curated the solo show herself and arranged her textile work in a way that best encapsulates the process of mental crisis through to mental recovery within a visual passage way to best convey the change process from mental despair to mental growth, to best communicate the narrative through sensations and emotions felt.
Gillian Morris is a textile artist based in Central Scotland. She is a practising clinical and counselling psychologist within the NHS. While this textile artist has exhibited previously through her work with tapestry weaving this screen-printed work with stitch is her first solo exhibition at Wasps.
The Series of Material Statements-Visual Representations of Mental Distress and Recovery textile art exhibition offers increased scale, complexity of imagery and techique with layered print and meaning to suit the overall narrative which will inform and engage the exhibiton visitors as a collective of unique and meaningful material pieces.
The textile artist has utilised ten vintage linen bedsheets as the material basis of the creative work. Each bedsheet was dyed in varying shades of grey to match grey matter which is abundant in the cerebellum, cerebrum and brain stem and represents the core sites of cognitive functioning, information processing through neural connectivity. The original artwork for this project of work stems from research on neuro-networking from neuroimaging techniques to illustrate human identity and the sense of self at its most intrinsic level. Eight vintage linen bedsheets were screen-printed whole, and two bedsheets were cut up and used for the sampling processes through a process of building up layers of print to explore meaning and to demonstrate emotion, one series of three bedsheets represent crisis with print while the other series of five bedsheets represent repair and recovery through print and stitch. The eight whole linen bedsheets are wall mounted as well as hung from the ceiling as a central space to walk through, to fully inhabit to interact with from within the exhibition space.
Full information can be found on the website: https://www.waspsstudios.org.uk/
Contact information:
Name: Gillian Morris
Organisation: Wasps (Workshop & Artists Studio Provision Scotland) Hanson Street Studios
Address: 77 Hanson Street, Dennistoun, Glasgow G31 2HF
Phone: 0141 553 5890
Email: weaveprintrepeat@gmail.com
September 2021- Exhibition Press Release to advertise the solo show at Wasps, Hanson Street Studios
Exhibition Statement- “Help me as I am struggling to want to be here”
A Series of Material Statements-Visual Representations of Mental Distress and Recovery (2021) is a group of large-scale mixed media works using screen printing and hand stitching on vintage linen bedsheets. The material qualities of the vintage linen bedsheets and threads are indicative of and help to reinforce the narrative, to tell the story of mental crisis through therapy to mental recovery through their strength, resilience, robustness, and enhanced capacity for repair. The work is autobiographical in nature and depicts real-life circumstances emotionally through the textile artists experiences as a psychologist. The scale of intuitive relating with the materials in process communicate the scale of emotional resonance felt within the therapeutic therapy process itself as a psychologist. Throughout the creative process the textile artist sought to convey her own emotional experiencing, so others can look, to feel to understand something of such experiencing.
The vintage linen bedsheets are imbedded with meaning for the textile artist, of her family’s history based in linen, of a lineage, weighted with provenance, of generations of home and mill workers making linen, of layers of experiencing enmeshed within the material, of personal identity and belonging. The vintage linen bedsheets lent themselves to communicating the narrative, of previous wear and tear, of communicating a range of experiencing through a lifetime and the repetitive need for repair. Of the capacity of the vintage linen bedsheets to encompass pleasant dreams to traumatic nightmares, of bringing comfort, restorative sleep, and relaxation to unravelling despair and spiralling low mood. The aim then is to promote increased insight and understanding of the experiencing of mental distress and of the need for support, compassion, and time, to listen to understand free from labelling, judgement, and recrimination. To help counter the adage man’s inhumanity to man, to afford those struggling with mental ill-health the therapeutic environment to mend and recover. The visual representations from each series of screen-printed imagery with printing inks builds up layers of emotional relating and responding with the vintage linen using colour combinations to best suit the emotional state of either distress or repair. The imagery stemmed from original artwork based upon neural mapping as the basis of all communication and understanding. Ultimately the textile artist sought to express the increased propensity for change, growth, and repair, for positive transformation from mental distress. That said the series invites the viewer to reflect upon mental distress and recovery, of their own emotional response to the sequence and to consider how they can help themselves and others to be more tolerate, understanding, compassionate and kind both self to self and self with other.
The textile artist has utilised ten vintage linen bedsheets as the material basis of the creative work. Each bedsheet was dyed in varying shades of grey to match grey matter which is abundant in the cerebellum, cerebrum and brain stem and represents the core sites of cognitive functioning, information processing through neural connectivity. The original artwork for this project of work stems from research on neuro-networking from neuroimaging techniques to illustrate human identity and the sense of self at its most intrinsic level. Eight vintage linen bedsheets were screen-printed whole, and two bedsheets were cut up and used for the sampling processes through a process of building up layers of print to explore meaning and to demonstrate emotion, one series of three bedsheets represent crisis with print while the other series of five bedsheets represent repair and recovery through print and stitch. The eight whole linen bedsheets are wall mounted as well as hung from the ceiling as a central space to walk through, to fully inhabit to interact with from within the exhibition space.
Gillian Morris Textile Artist October 2021
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