Fibre, wood exhibition

Press, 2 November 1989, Page 22

Fibre, wood exhibition

An exhibition of fibre works by Jill Nicholls and wood by Mary Bartos at the Cave Rock Gallery, the Arts Centre, Hereford Street, until November 3. Reviewed by Barry Allom.

In mounting this small but memorable exhibition, Cave Rock continues its policy of presenting varied craft by leading craftspeople.

Jill Nicholls’s work illustrates the blurred line between craft and art, just as the colours blur and merge across the strands of cotton with dramatic effect in the fabric “paintings”; “Tulip Time” and “Reflections.” Likewise in the graphic “Three Of A Kind” the handmade cast paper pro-

vides colour and texture.' The three hanging woven sculptures in handpainted rayon are clever, painstakingly made and full of life. Colours are vibrant in “Fiesta,” more subdued but subtly beautiful in “Canterbury Looking for More Green.” Wonderfully draped with woven copper wire these pieces are tantalisingly ethereal. “Lifeblood of the Plains” is a large work full of Canterbury imagery which stretches from ceiling to floor. Reaching across the plains or symbolically down from sky to earth, the long braids of fabric convey the artesian lifeblood as well as contain the rocks which anchor us in time and place.

Mary Bartos’s tall sculptures do not work as well as her turned pieces. In “1.2.3.” and the wall piece “Pebbles” the beauty of the grain speaks so eloquently words are superfluous. “Landform”, flat, sculptured and indigenous, succeeds because the flat painted azure of the sea startlingly provides a foil to the roundness of the low contoured hills. But it is the box and two bowls which steal the show. In these Mary Bartos turns the tree inside out to reveal its inner nature. By retaining the rugged beauty of the bark, she adds a fourth dimension. By retaining the squareness of the plank she nicely balances the scooped-out roundness of the bowl form. Superb!