Anni Albers

Last week we went down to London to catch the retrospective exhibition of the work of Anni Albers, a 20th century weaver and textile designer who was one of the pioneers of 20th century modernism.  The exhibition was at Tate Modern which is housed in the old Bankside power station.

The part of the building to the left is the original power station and the extension to the right is the Blavatnik building named after Sir Leonard Blavatnik who donated much of the funds for the development.

This is the Turbine Hall which often houses large installations and site specific works.

This side view fronts onto the Thames (more of which later).

Thanks to my husband for this shot from the escalators cutting through two floors to reach the floor of the turbine hall.

Our first impression of the Tate was its size, it's huge and cavernous!  A note for future reference, they allow you to take in small flight size cases but they must be stowed at the cloakroom, which is free and secure but invites donations, currently £4.

I hadn't expected to enjoy the exhibition as much as I did, especially as I only weave on a simple floor loom and not a multi-shafted one but I was fired up by it all.

The exhibition was in the Eyer Ofal Galleries in the Natalie Bell building.  The first weaving was Black White Yellow which was rewoven in 1965 by Gunta Stölzl who was Bauhaus Master of Craft in the weaving workshop from 1927 to 1931.

This is a detail of Black White Yellow, woven in cotton and silk.  It is 207.6 x 121.4cms  I had a lovely chat with 2 ladies as we tried to work out how this was achieved.  They were complete novices at weaving and my small knowledge didn't help at all.  

Anni's loom was on display and surprisingly (to me) compact.  She also wove on much larger and smaller looms.

Anni was introduced to weaving at the Bauhaus which she joined in 1922.  Her influences there included Paul Klee and Kandinsky and can be readily seen in her weaving and in her works on paper as preparation and exploration for design.  Oops!  Didn't photograph any examples.

The Bauhaus was forced to close by the Nazis in 1931 and Anni moved to a teaching position at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina USA.

My greatest fascination in the exhibition was the way the warps were manipulated with the weft threads and which were probably woven on a small handloom.  I have tried something similar on my own looms.  I particularly like the way she has used the technique for parts of rows and not all the way across the width.  It makes for an interesting texture.

This weave and the one below spoke to me a bit of Mondrian's work, notably his Boogie-Woogie works.  Above is Open Letter, 1958, cotton, 57.8 x 60cms.  It has lots of excitement for me in the texture and I loved the little shots of colour.

 Above is titled "Pasture' from1958 measuring 35.6 x 39.4 cms

This image above was wonderfully rich in colour (much stronger than my flashless photograph shows) and is titled Sunny from 1965 in cotton and linen,12.7 x 43.2 cms.

South of the Border, above, cotton and wool, 10.5 X 38.7cms, has a landscape feel to my eye and is much more colour rich in reality.

Set in a space of its own, with a large bench in front to allow for contemplation, was the 6 panelled Six Prayers which was made for the Jewish Museum New York to memorialise the 6 million Jews who died in the holocaust.  Each panel is 186 x 50 centimetres from cotton and linen threads and highlighted by silver accents.

The detail is sadly out of focus due to the lack of light and no flash.  I did like the use she had made wandering threads that are carried along and up the weave.

Alternative materials had figured in some of Anni's early works too, including her diploma piece from the Bauhaus, woven to be soundproofing and to cover the walls in an auditorium.

This fabric looked a bit like a thermal ironing board cover that I used to have and was woven with cotton, chenille and cellophane.  It was backed with chenille (velvet in the accompanying description).

The huge space in the gallery was separated by partitions made from wood and sheer fabric that gave interesting veiled views of the visitors and weavings to be explored and also supported some of the more varied weavings.

 

The piece above is by Lenore Tawney titled Leckythos and woven in 1962 from linen, brass and acrylic.  Size 127 x 68cms.  A statement by Albers from her book 'On Weaving' suggests that she was aware of this artist's work and the way she was taking weaving forward.   With the sheer fabric behind it it looks almost ethereal.

The Anni Albers exhibition ends on Sunday 27th January and I for one wish I had gone much earlier so that I could have had a second visit.  There is just so much to see, but I can recommend the exhibition catalogue which is extensive with its illustrations and text.  It's a book both to dip into and to enjoy in depth.   

Our visit was rounded off with some wonderful views of the opposite bank of the Thames and of The globe Theatre which sadly we didn't have time to visit.  

 The Millennium Bridge crossing towards St Paul's Cathedral.

 

The Globe Theatre (thatched)

City of London School

It was a very grey day as you can see but the birch trees still looked beautiful.

'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red'

Today, like many other people over the past several weeks, we have been on a special trip to London to see what is most likely a once in a lifetime event.  This year marks the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War and the Tower of London has been chosen to stage a huge installation commemorating and remembering all of the British and Colonial lives lost in the Great War.  888,246 ceramic poppies have been made and are being planted in the moat at the Tower, one poppy for every life lost. 

The poppies are the inspiration of Paul Cummins, a Derbyshire ceramicist, and he drew his inspiration from a line in the will of a Derbyshire man who died in Flanders. "The blood swept lands and seas of red, where angels fear to tread".  These poppies have all been made by hand by potters at Paul Cummings studio using techniques in use at the timeof the Frist World War.  Some might say ironically that Paul has become a casualty too as he has lost a finger and damaged another while making the poppies.  Tom Piper has worked in collaboration with Paul to bring his inspiration to life.

Our visit today was sadly a little marred by a wet day but the impact of the poppies was nonetheless huge.  They are indeed like a huge red sea swirling all around the moat of the Tower of London.  The crowds vying for a view of the scene were huge but happily all were calm and patient in their jostling for a good view.  

 These little sparrows have soon found a new perch in amongst the poppy stems.  I wonder if sparrows ventured into the horror that was the trenches?

 Despite the rain there was a huge group of volunteers planting poppies.  I had not appreciated that  the poppies are actually constructed on site and it would appear it involves quite a lot of effort.

You should be able to see that even the Chelsea Pensioners are getting involved. 

The last poppy will be planted on Armistice Day, 11 November, and after that the poppies will be taken up and sent out to everyone who has requested one.  A percentage of the monies from the sale of the poppies will be shared among 6 Forces charities.  I'm happy and moved to say that one will be taking a special place in our garden later in the year. 

There are a lot of videos on Youtube about the poppies and I have included one here about their manufacture.



Each day at sunset the names of 180 Commonwealth troops who died during the war are read out and the Last Post is sounded.  

I abhor all forms of war and conflict and it is doubtful that this unique commemoration will change anything in the tide of man's brutality, but it is a formidable and very visual statement about the sheer numbers of individual lives obliterated in a war, and all around us today we could hear parents explaining to their children the significance of each flower.  Paul Cummins and Tom Piper and all the individuals involved are to be commended for their vision and effort.   The visual and emotional impact of the sea of red is both immediate and lasting. 

Christmas and catching up

I seem to be doing a lot of that lately - catching up.  The lead up to Christmas has been really busy, and especially so the last 10 days.  

On the creative front I made a few Christmas presents this year and also a Christmas tree decoration.  Don't you love it when the Christmas tree goes up?  I love rediscovering the decorations we've had for years and ones I've received from friends.  

If you look towards the top right hand side of the photo above you'll see the cloth Christmas tree decoration I made.  It was so simple, just two half circles of cloth sewn together and turned through and then the curved edge brought across to the straight edge in such a way as to create several folds backwards and forwards.  Voila!  It resembles a tree and a few beads completes the effect.  I made a couple of these for friends and used tiny bells from what was supposed to be a cat's Christmas collar to give it a bit of a jingle.

In the photo above is a daft decoration I made last year that I had completely forgotten about, probably because it crippled my hands to do it.  I scrunched up paper into a ball and then glued tissue paper over that.  It was finished off by glueing sequins, beads and pieces of broken jewellery and shisha mirrors to give it some sparkle.  Not difficult and a bit of fun.  

At the beginning of December I did a class at Stitchcraft with Wendy Coyne and made a very easy but efffective box. 

Inside the box you end up with a tiny triangular pocket at each corner.  I've since made a second box with lace layered onto felt for the inside surface and I've covered the flaps with buttons and beads.  I thought I had a photograph of it but can't seem to find it.  It's gone to my stepmum for her Christmas present so you'll just have to take my word for it that it was very pretty.

Early in December my Mum's care home had a local school bring their choir to sing carols for the residents and everone had a great time.

I don't know how they did it but 25 children and two teachers crammed into the lounge with the residents.  The children came from St Mary's Junior School and sang beautifully.  My Mum joined in with some of the carols and I tried to sing but had a huge lump in my throat.  Can't imagine why!

Last week was the busiest of all.  First was a return to the care home for Mum's Christmas tea, then a fabulous trip to Leeds to see Andre Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra.  I have been a fan for years so it was wonderful to see them live.  The show was at the new Leeds Arena which is huge but a much pleasanter venue than some of the other arenas. 

We had good seats quite high up but at the front so we could see everything.   We even managed to get ourselves on those big screens waving our Union Jack about during one of the numbers.

Excuse the glare where the stage is, phones are not perfect at recording.  I was intrigued by how the orchestra get onto the stage and now I know.

 The Youtube clip is Andre's tribute to Nelson Mandela which formed part of the concert and which was a tour de force by the soloist, Kimmy Skota.

Andre Rieu gives a fabulous concert and by the end there is a real party atmosphere.  Some people missed the last half hour as they believed Andre when he took a 'final' bow.  They ignored our assurances that the concert would continue which it did within less than a minute.   Our local coach company A and P Travel are organising a trip to Andre's home town Maastricht in Holland for his 10th anniversary concert there in July next year and we've already booked to go.  It should be something special!

Saturday saw us on a coach trip to London to enjoy a Christmas Carol Singalong at the Royal Albert Hall.  Again we were lucky with our seats which were near to the stage.

We had a bit of a wait before the auditorium doors opened.

I was really pleased that our seats were in the stalls and not up the top.  The white squares everywhere are the songsheets.

As you can see we were right near the main action alongside the orchestra.  I'd never been to this event before and it was more like the Last Night of the Proms and lots of fun.  

Sunday saw us in Hyde Park having a walk round the extravaganza that is Winter Wonderland, another new event to us.  It was a cold and breezy day but Hyde Park looked at its best.  

No, we didn't go on the big wheel!

We weren't able to get into the Magical Ice Kingdom as all the tickets had sold for the day but we had a lovely walk round taking in the atmosphere and then went for a walk round the Serpentine.

This is part of the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial garden and water feature.  

These must be a very early species of snowdrop in flower in time for Christmas.

As we went back to the coach to come home we passed the monument to the terrible bombings in London in 2005.

There is a post for each life lost and the time of the incident.  The names of the lost are commemorated on a slate tablet nearby.  A moment for quiet contemplation in  the middle of all the excitement of Christmas.

Well, the shops are now all shut and there's nothing left to do but to hope that the bad weather doesn't upset too many plans.  We are seeing Mum tomorrow and will then be spending Boxing Day with her and all the family, not least her great grandsons. 

I hope my nephew will forgive me for 'borrowing' his photograph.  Callum, Max and Duke, in case you were wondering.

Whatever you have planned for the next couple of days I hope you have the best time you can have with people who are special to you or doing what makes your heart glad.

Merry Christmas