My tutor suggested I might enjoy the work of Polly Binns UK who has been a member of the UK’s prestigious embroidery 62 Group and achieved many other distinctions with her work..
Binns started her career in clay but moved to weaving to assist in understanding the material essence of cloth. She began investigating artist canvas considering how canvas behaves when it is not stretched, when not covered in oil paint her work centred around folding, pleating and stitching the cloth to raise the surface. Binns worked on both sides of the canvas.
Her work from the mid 90’s has been described as post minimalist. Her work is centred around observation and memory of place. Binns moved to the Norfolk coast and before she does any work in her studio she walks. She finds walking allows her to immerse in a direct experience.
I managed to obtain from England a copy of a monograph of Polly Binns Surfacing that accompanied her 2003 Exhibition at Bury St Edmunds art gallery.
Sand Surface and Shadows 1996 from p30 Surfacing Monograph Polly Binns
Edge 1999-2000 from p34 Surfacing Monograph Polly Binns
Sand Sections 1995-1996 Polly Binns p 8 Surfacing Monograph
I was intrigued about the walks and read further and found that the walk is in an inter tidal marshland where the distinctions between earth and water are unstable. The zone’s surface is not quite land, not always sea and has ever-changing tides. Binns studies these changes very closely and also for other purposes takes photographs. In her Studio she works with the memory of the zone’s surface and the that is created. Binns works with the mud, sand, water, bird marks, rope marks, vegetation and light.
In Surfacing 2001-2003 and in Landmark 2001-2003 the layering of experience is articulated through – grid, repetition, modular units – in tension with the poetry of landscape and processes (p12, Surfacing Monograph).
Interval 2001-2003 Tidal Interlude reworked 2001, p59 Surfacing Monograph Polly Binns
Binns and Anne Morell held a Light and Line exhibition at the Nottingham Castle Gallery in 2012-13. Binns work continued from her inspiring walks in the North Norfolk Coast capturing the movement and flow of the landscape.
Marsh Condition, Polly Binns, 2011 from Exhibition Catalogue
Binns technique included layering translucent pigments and paints over one another onto the canvas to create a watery type effect and this is then added to by folds, stronger painted lines, machine and hand stitch.
I found Binns work to be mindful, does not dominate and is soft on its background. The use of a natural colour palette helps me to imagine the area in which she walks. I was fascinated about her research over a period of time of one landscape although a very dynamic landscape and the linkages between Binns direct observation of the landscape and then her execution in the studio from memory. I am attracted to her layering techniques and the results she obtains.
Her earlier work on materials paired with my reading from the book reviewed earlier on “The Art of Critical Making” the chapter on ‘Conversation: Materials’. Her minimalist and gentle colour palette and grids reminded me of the work I have seen of Agnes Martin USA a favourite artist of mine.
Reference:
Surfacing – Polly Binns – Monograph, Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, 2003. Exhibition curators Pamela Johnson and Barbara Taylor
Blog Modernist Aesthetic Judy Martin. 2009
http://travelsintextiles.com/light-and-line-2/
Ocean Blue Mixed Media 