20 July – 31 August 2024
Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Elmfield House, Dowell Street, Honiton, Devon EX14 1LX
l-r Nina Gronw Lewis, Lou Baker, Lydia Needle, Angie Parker, Julie Heaton
in front of Oly Bliss’ work
‘Thought provoking. I very much enjoyed the combining of materials which was exciting and innovative.’
on the day A Visible THREAD opened at Thelma Hulbert Gallery.
l-r Lou Baker, Oly Bliss, Lydia Needle, Leah Hislop and Nina Gronw Lewis
in front of Angie Parker’s sculptural weaving
‘Inspiring work – textiles and thread going in so many directions with so many possibilities.’
Our exhibition at Thelma Hulbert Gallery was the final iteration of seam collective’s A Visible THREAD as part of our Arts Council funded exhibition tour. It was also the largest, with all 15 seam members taking part, and it included work by the late Dr. Linda Row too. It was a fabulous grand finale! We had an enjoyable and well attended ‘Meet the Artists’ event in the gallery on the day the exhibition opened, where several seam members demonstrated a number of textile techniques.
The artists exhibiting at Fine Foundation were: Alice Marie Archer, Angie Parker, Desiree Jeans, Helen MacRitchie, Jane Colquhoun, Joy Merron, Julie Heaton, Leah Hislop, Lou Baker, Lydia Needle, Nicola Turner, Nina Gronw-Lewis, Oly Bliss, Penny Wheeler, Youngye Glory Cho, and the late Dr. Linda Row.
‘As Curator of Thelma Hulbert Gallery, it was a pleasure to host seam collective – A Visible THREAD, a richly layered exhibition exploring sustainability, materiality, and the power of textiles its possibilities as well as limitations. The show transformed our space into vibrant and immersive experience inviting touch, interaction, and reflection. Highlights included a launch event with live demonstrations by 5 of the artists, participatory installations by Lou Baker and Lydia Needle and a clear thread of ethical practice and artistic innovation throughout. seam Collective brought not just extraordinary work, but a collaborative/family spirit that resonated deeply with our community. They were a total joy to work with and we hope to collaborate with them again in the future.’
Gemma Girvan, Curator, Thelma Hulbert Gallery
‘Amazing diverse work – great to see textiles used in such creative ways across an interesting range of themes. Original and technically skilled work with great visual punch. Loved it, thank you.’
‘The exhibition pieces … are thought provoking … meaningful, enriching, exquisitely executed and aesthetically pleasing. There’s so much (previously unencountered) intricacy of detail and technical processes and concepts. It really needs 2 visits, to contemplate and reflect, because it’s academic and profound not to mention beautiful and otherwise.. The use of paper, wax, wool, fabrics, ….some of the pieces were fine engineering …’
Gillian Burbidge, local textiles tutor
Please touch!
There were a couple of interactive works included in this exhibition: Lydia Needle’s stitched cubes of second hand clothing, highlighting issues of textile waste and Lou Baker’s Transitional objects, 5 quirky stitched sculptures which were made to be touched.
Participation
Demonstration time…
‘A great interactive day – diverse exhibition. Lots to learn, great demonstrations and sharing of knowledge and skills. This inspired me to try new techniques.’
‘Very good collection. Good amount of interactive and thought provoking artworks.
Love the community fabric book.’
Invited to stitch
Visitors were also invited to stitch into a cloth book, one of a series made by seam members using naturally dyed and embellished cloth. The rest of the books were for sale in the shop.
‘Such a lovely exhibition – touchable, informative, fun. I loved adding a stich. Inspirational and imaginative. Thanks.’
There was a collaborative, touchable fabric book too where each seam artist had made a page in their own style, using their chosen processes and materials. As you might imagine, it’s wonderfully eclectic!
Can you tell which page is made by which artist?
Making upstairs
The Thelma Hulbert staff had also set up a room for making upstairs, with lots of interesting materials and some cardboard looms so that visitors could try weaving:
Over the course of the exhibition several seam members ran workshops in this lovely room.
Added extra…?
As an added extra for the grand finale, many of the seam artists made a short video, explaining the ideas behind their work for A Visible THREAD. These were shown on a screen as part of the exhibition. Find out more about the work made by Joy Merron, Angie Parker, Jane Colquhoun, Lou Baker, Lydia Needle, Oly Bliss, Desiree Jeans, Julie Heaton, Alice-Marie Archer and Helen MacRitchie. Thank you all for sharing your methods and concepts!
‘Loved this exhibition. Putting ‘womens work’ front and centre to provoke, move and inform in a very relatable way.’
Smaller works for sale
We also sold some smaller works in the gallery shop, including the collaborative cloth books made by some of our seam members:
Read more about our exhibition at Thelma Hulbert Gallery in our blog post:
A Visible THREAD: The Grand Finale!
You can also 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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