Mechanical Drawing

Back in December 2006 we posted a video of the extraordinary Schiffli machine which Dr Melanie Miller has used as the focus of a research project and exhibition. The machine is likely to be removed for disposal because it does not fit the standards of noise control and spatial economy required in the University. An exhibition of work by fifteen artists using the historic Schiffli embroidery machine (the last remaining machine of its kind) opened last night at the Holden Gallery at Manchester Metropolitan University.

The exhibition shows work including subverted domestic objects, such as Dixon and Welsh’s ‘Armchair Politico’, Kate Egan’s inflating and deflating quilt, ‘Stack’ and Nina Edge’s net curtain, ‘Nothing is private’. Wall pieces include huge figurative works by Alice Kettle, Nigel Cheney and Rowena Ardern as well as a quilt by Lynn Setterington. More intimate work is present in the form of a series of rag books by Jane McKeating; and Rozanne Hawksley’s ‘Anthem for Albion’, a poignant installation referencing global conflict. Sally Morfill, Isabel Dibden Wright, Jill Boyes and Melanie Miller play with the inherent repetition of the machine to create wall-based pieces, and Susan Platt has created a schiffli poem, ‘the Lost Thread’.

Venues
Nov 16th – Dec 14th 2007 Holden Gallery Manchester Metropolitan University
Mar 8th – April 27th 2008 The Hub, Sleaford
May 3rd – June 29th Farfield Mill Arts and Heritage Centre, Sedbergh
July 5th – Sept 7th 2008 Macclesfield Silk Museum
Autumn 2008 The Knitting and Stitching Show, Birmingham, London, Harrogate

CLICK HERE for further information about ‘Mechanical Drawing – the Schiffli Project’