Talks & workshop & a drop-in too at the War Memorial park, Coventry!

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Artist Talk
Julia O’Connell is an artist from Coventry whose work is based around textile processes, memory and story. She has recently been appointed artist in residence at the War Memorial Park Coventry and she will be giving a talk about her work on Friday 29th August at 11.00am ‐ 12.30pm in the Visitor’s Centre at the park. The talk is FREE, please contact the reception on 024 76786280 to book a place. For more information about Julia’s work please view her website: http://www.juliaoconnell.co.uk

Park and Stitch
Julia will be having a ‘stitch-in’ on Friday 26th September. This is a free event where you can pop along to have an informal chat about craft and making, and also stitch along with Julia at the same time! Please bring any ongoing sewing or craft projects (including knit or crochet) and set aside time for yourself to spend with other makers, sharing skills and stories. If you would like to attend but are a new maker, Julia will have some work to share and do! It would be lovely to see you. This is a free activity for adults and takes place at The Visitor Centre in The Education Room – 10.00am until 12.00pm.

Textile Workshop
As part of Julia’s residency she will be creating memory quilts about stories from the park. On Thursday 30th October, Julia will be holding a patchwork workshop. The workshop is suitable for ages 10 and upward and is an ideal opportunity for everyone to learn a new skill, have fun and be together. Workshop takes place at The Visitor Centre in The Education Room – 1.30pm until 3.30pm. The workshop is FREE, please contact the reception on 024 76786280 to book a place.

World War One – Embroidered Postcards

In 2013 I began a commission with Theatre Absolute The project is called 100 and is a cross arts project for the approaching World War One centenary. There are 4 elements to the project, a short film, two new plays and a textile response by myself. I looked at the embroidered postcards that were sent from the Front. Many were initally hand embriodered by French and Belgium women and sold to troops but gradually as the popularity of these increased they were made by machine in factories. There were millions made and I think the scale of production in making these cards that then held precious and personal messages to loved ones fascinated me. I have gradually purchased a few. I chose a couple of motifs from the cards and set about interpreting the designs, learning the flow of stitches and their patterning as I progressed. I stitched a motif 24 times onto 3 organdie screens. It was a way to reconnect back to the hand from the industrial machines. It takes incredible precision to try and stitch the same motif by hand again and again and I was struck by the psychological and physical changes within me as I stitched the work. I recorded the time it took me to stitch each one to see if I could get quicker as I repeated the design. My body began to tense and twist as I rushed to finish quicker against a previous recorded time. During the premiere in October of the initial commissions at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry, I displayed the completed screens. Viewers were invited to stitch a new screen with me and read my collection of postcards and their messages. It was a wonderful opportunity to hear personal stories from others about their families and connections to World War One. Here are a few images. The work will be exhibited again in June 2014.

Let the stitches begin!

Finally this weekend is here! Have been working towards this since late 2009! Today I will be stitching more tailors tacks in the old cathedral ruins in Coventry. (From 11.00am) Two other artists who worked on the panels of the coat will be with me (Deb Squires http://www.debsquires.co.uk and Julie Joannides http://www.juliejoannides.blogspot.co.uk)) and the event is open & free to the public to come along and add a tailors tack to the lining. Tonight there is the actual awakening of Godiva – a huge performance and celebration and then tomorrow from 11.00am the coat will be presented to Godiva and we will dress her ready for her journey to London. I woke up today to glorious sunshine and I am keeping everything crossed that tomorrow is the same.

Rainy days

In case this July rain doesn’t go away myself and the Coat team have made a 5 metre mac for Godiva this week. Its a copy of the coat pattern with a smaller seam allowance and made out of shiny new transparent PVC! I am hoping that as I have now made this it wont actually rain on the day! Fingers crossed.

The days are going quickly to Godiva Awakes

The days to Godiva Awakes are going so quickly now and each one is filled with the final preparations to complete her coat. For information on the weekend activities do checkout http://www.imagineerproductions.co.uk – the coat will be presented and dressed by myself and the rest of the tailors on Sunday 29th July at 12 noon in Broadgate, Coventry – no tickets are required for this part of the performances – its just be early to get in! Find out more at http://www.imagineerproductions.co.uk

Below are some pics that track the Godiva coats progress from the early days until now…I can’t wait to reveal the whole coat in August. (If you subscribe to the Embroiderers Guild ‘Embroidery’ Magazine we are featured in the July 2012 copy.

The Coat team are all fab individual artists and you can find out more about them on their own sites:
Maggie Dunne – Maggie has researched the glove making industry from Worcester and has been responsible for the collar, cuffs and buttons on the coat.

Rachel Grant – Rachel has researched the pottery heritage in Stoke and her personal connections to it. She has worked on 2 of the coat’s 5 metre panels.

Adam Hussain – Adam is making Godiva’s cufflinks and researched Smethwick and Stourbridge glass making.

Julie Joannides– Julie has had access to the archives from Blitz Games and the Oliver Twins who are early game designers. She has embellished 2 of the coat panels.

Debbie Squires – Debbie has focussed her research on the Black Country chainmaking and nail forging industries and has also embellished 2 of the panels.

As well as designing the coat, I have focussed my artwork on the lining of the coat. I have stitched over 7000 tailors tacks and used white screenprinted images from my research of the artists and makers working on the whole Godiva Awakes project. The tacks signify the number of participants and artists on the project.

Images by Andrew Moore

ECB Site Visit 20.7.11

Great day on site – the build is beginning to take shape now and what was just a myriad of concreted areas are now resembling rooms, walls and open spaces. As well as taking photos I also took a mini sewing kit with me and decided to set a rule and find bits on site to stitch…I was in a space and looked on the floor and saw all these painted flakes that had come off a temporary roofing panel…so I sat quietly for a few minutes and stitched through a flake – it was so delicate to stitch through as it disintegrated really easily. I also found a little blue baby bow in my sewing kit – it is a really tiny bow that I got from my Nannar’s sewing ephemera when she passed away and I’ve always kept it with me thinking I will use it on some work…well I decided that the site could do with a little ‘softening’ up so went bow-bombing! The colours and textures on site are amazing so it was great to offset the bow on some of the works. I toyed with the idea of leaving the bow onsite as a little treasure but I actually couldn’t part with it so it came back home with me in the tin – packed away ready for its next guerilla bow bombing mission.

Work Update

Been neglecting my blog so chance to catch up and post a lot of photos (evidence of busy-ness). My current commissions for Godiva Awakes and ECB are really hotting up now hence the absence from my blog. Been busy meeting other members of the huge team of makers and engineers for Godiva including Nick and Frank and the fabulous people at Artem who are charged with making the huge 6 metre Godiva marionette – it was a real privilege spending time with them in their studios and workrooms – traditional crafts and new technologies working side by side and lovely people to boot.

I have now screen printed all 36 mtrs of the top coat (silk dupion) with prints that feature images and text from the West Midlands industries both past and present – we had 17 screens in total and then I repeated the process in other colours for the lining fabric which I will be specifically working on – I actually just can’t wait to get sewing, BUT I have decided to be cautious and make a full size toile of the coat so will begin to cut the pattern and sew up the calico toile in next week or so. At the end of July we get chance to try the toile on Godiva – can’t wait (best take my bodger tool kit just in case of mishaps!)

Thanks to Coat Team for help and inspiration: Rachel Grant, Julie Johannides, Debbie Squires, Maggie Dunne and Adam Hussain.

ECB is my other commission – the new and fabulous Engineering and Computing Building for Coventry University – as well as attending the topping out ceremony in May, I have been sampling in my studio and now preparing to spend a few days back on site filming and collecting sounds – weather be good!

Other bits in between:
Couple of months back I did fab workshop on Handsworth High Street – ‘Curious about Craft’ with Craftspace and their mobile craft studio – it was a glorious sunny day and the people who came and stitched with me were truly wonderful.

Saw retrospectives of Susan Hiller (LOVE her work) at Tate Britain in April, Annie Albers at the Mead, Warwick Arts Centre and then the wonderful collection of Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis paintings in June at Compton Verney.

I also squeezed in a talk for the WI ladies from Harrow Barrow and Metherell in Cornwall – what a nice night that was – great chance to talk about my practice and they paid me in buttons and lace – the best currency in my eyes.

July sees another night of intrigue and infamy with the brilliant Pecha Kucha in Coventry. http://www.pkncoventry.posterous.com/
A chance for artists/designers/general peeps to talk about the curiosities of life in 20 slides no more. If you’re near Coventry, UK on the 26th July its at Taylor Johns and well worth a look. (For those in London – Cov is now accessible via Virgin Trains in under 56 mins)

artist in residence work

Since May 2009 I have been working as artist in residence for Coventry University on their new Engineering and Computer building which is due for completion in 2012. The building is designed by ARUP and the construction company is VINCI. It’s been a fascinating few months, working closely with the archaeologists after the demolition of the Gulson Hospital and being able to witness their finds. The most poignant being a medieval button with a Pelican beating her breast with the latin words Crede Michi which is translated to ‘I believe’. The site was also a poor house and in the very early days a brick making site for Whitefriars nearby. It was amazing to touch a piece of pot or a clay pipe thinking that prior to myself and the archaeologist it was probably the original owner who had last touched or used the objects so many years ago.

I am collating stories on the site and the construction team are saving their doodles and drawings for use in my installation. Its a unique experience and I hope to post a few photographs as the site progresses.

Anyone with stories from the hospital or its previous uses do contact me mail@juliaoconnell.co.uk

k6

This commission was the creation of a series of machine and hand embroidered  advert ‘calling cards’ for some of the last remaining red telephone boxes in Birmingham, England. The city centre’s K6 red phone boxes became the unusual gallery space for my work and six other artists, whose work ranged from a pin hole camera, graffiti knit bombing and forum phone calls.  The exhibition took place in March 2009 and was organised by independent curator Anne Forgan and was named after the urban myth for the amount of oxygen in a phone booth. The phone boxes were still in use for the general public during the interventions.

images from home maker no.28, no.34 and no.63