17 February – 04 May 2024
Llantarnam Grange, St David’s Rd, Cwmbran NP44 1PD
l-r Lydia Needle, Penny Wheeler, Nina Gronw Lewis and Joy Merron
‘Fascinating , thought-provoking, awe inspiring!’
This was the third official version of our exhibition, A Visible THREAD, and the only one in Wales. Again, we had a lovely ‘Meet the Artists’ event on the day it opened.
The artists exhibiting at Llantarnam Grange were: Alice Marie Archer, Angie Parker, Helen MacRitchie, Jane Colquhoun, Joy Merron, Lou Baker, Lydia Needle, Nina Gronw-Lewis, Oly Bliss, Penny Wheeler and the late Dr. Linda Row.
‘Beautiful and free thinking, visional’
‘The art in here is immensely imaginative. I appreciate the individuality of such beautiful pieces.’
‘On a visit for my art GCSE- really great work. I especially love the little people as I’m researching sewing / free machine embroidery at the moment. Thank you.’
‘Imaginative use of material and thread. Lou Baker’s ‘STASH’ is quite menacing. BRILLIANT!’
Please touch!
Penny Wheeler initiated several interactive activities, providing some spoons and coloured filters – to look at the art works differently – and a range of textured yarns for visitors to touch.
Here are some examples of photos of some of the art works, taken with different coloured filters and with a spoon:
‘Where do you find these ideas? Splendid.’
Participation – Workshops
During the course of the exhibition, several seam members ran workshops at Llantarnam Grange – Jane Colquhoun, Julie Heaton, Lydia Needle and Helen MacRitchie. The gallery also arranged a timetable of workshops run by local artists to complement A Visible THREAD.
‘Some stunning work here – especially the Helen MacRitchie & the Angie Parker Krokbragd rug. Well worth the journey from Belfast!’
Collaborative making
As part of our match funding, a group of seam members spent a couple of days together making hand dyed cloth books to sell alongside the exhibition. They were made up into kits, including some coordinating, hand dyed threads.
Some of the artists also made small works to sell in the shop
‘Lovely to see this here in a ‘post-industrial’, Welsh context.’
Find out more about our research behind seam‘s A Visible THREAD exhibition tour in Making thread visible, how it started as a research residency in Spring 2022, and what we got up to during our residency on our blog.
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