Artist, Rosalind Wyatt chronicles lives of three generations of her family

Chiswick artist, Rosalind Wyatt works with calligraphy, textile and collage. In The Stitch Lives of Others, Parts 1, 2 and 3, she uniquely draws on all three mediums to create four pieces of startling intricacy, fascinating provenance and personal profundity. STORYLINES, marks the first showing of Parts 2 and 3.

The series has been inspired by a treasure trove of letters, drawings and journals passed down through three generations of her husband’s distinguished family, which the artist has meticulously replicated in stitch work on garments original to each generation. Using antique thread from the same source, Wyatt intersperses her pieces with paper artifacts, personal effects, even locks of hair belonging to each family member.

The result is a rich interplay of text and content, as Wyatt explores the physical aesthetics of writing, within an extraordinary historical context. She is not simply faithfully mimicking individual writing styles, but exploiting the patterns created, their interaction with the shape of the garment and exploring the way in which the emotional content is communicated through the spontaneous, physical act of writing.

Thus, the revealing weight and speed of the original handwriting is reproduced through the colour and width of threads used and the speed and pressure of her stitching, as much as the narrative; so that every element of the work resonates meaning.

The whole is underpinned by a sense of journeying, whether physically, emotionally or genealogically, as Wyatt draws the threads of her family together.

March 19, 2009