Kiss, Kiss, Kiss / Democracy

Submitting work to “Sample” & “The Art of the Stitch”, Ayliffe was selected by a panel of artists and museum curators amongst a field of 430 international artists. Ayliffe contributed two paintings “Kiss, Kiss, Kiss” (152 x183cm) and “Democracy” (152 x183cm) (oil, gloss-paint and digiprint on canvas) for the exhibition. Ayliffe’s paintings have previously deployed hand-stitching in both functional and performative roles to signify intense, repetitive labour as a reflection on the historically female pursuits of embroidery, patchwork and the decorative arts. In “Sample”, this is expanded through the development of technical and formal strategies able to question and disrupt the cultural values attached to different types of mark making. For this work Ayliffe created simple cross-stitch embroideries that were photographed, digitally manipulated, then enlarged and printed onto canvas. Digital images were collaged onto the surface and employed alongside hard edge/painted geometric patterns and repeated gestural marks in an attempt to upset normalised, hierarchical readings of media, mark and gesture. The painted gesture is endlessly and exactly repeated while the stitches, enlarged and digitised, take on the characteristics of the painterly gesture.

Citation

In: Catalogue: Art of the Stitch and Sample, Surrey: Embroiderers’ Guild

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/2436/30139

Additional Links

https://embroiderersguild.com/index.php?page_no=120&page_menu=home

Type

Digital or visual media

Language

en

Description

The exhibition travelled to Williamson Art Gallery & Museum, Wirral, UK; Dutch Textile Museum, Tilburg, Netherlands; then to Hall Place, Bexley, Kent. A catalogue with contributions from Chris Berry, Chair of the Embroiders Guild, UK; Dr Caroline Boot, Curator, Tilburg Textile Museum, Netherlands; and independent curator Jo Saunders was produced. Funding: Embroiderers Guild and AHRB small research grant: £3000, May 2003.

Collections

Faculty of Arts