GALLERY 1
HUFF AND PUFF – VIVIENNE BEAUMONT
6 MAY – 29 JULY
For this solo exhibition, machine embroiderer Vivienne Beaumont is sharing a new series of narrative stitched textiles inspired by fairy tales. Huff and Puff is the result of Vivienne’s research into mycelium, nature’s composting systems. Vivienne was fascinated by the process and possibility of transforming golden harvest waste into compostable packaging and insulation. This process proves that organic materials have the potential to replace the petrochemical products filling landfill. This new series reflects the fact that nature has the power to transform and renew, giving hope in a time of universal anxiety.
“I use fairy tales for a new narrative inspired by my research. Figures are huffing and puffing, blowing spores referencing the three little pigs, who built with straw, twigs and bricks, while the maiden works to spin straw into gold.” – Vivienne Beaumont
Featured alongside Huff and Puff, Vivienne’s Needles and Pins series brings us an alternative interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood. Traditionally functioning as a cautionary tale, it is fundamentally a story of a young girl’s rite of passage, her growing up, leaving the familial home, and experiencing a metaphorical loss of virginity through the spilling of blood. In her stiches, Vivienne subverts this knowledge, recasting the wolf as the protector, rather than the predator. This changes the threat from a tangible character to abstract concepts, such as the unknown and the dark.
Both bodies of work were made using machine embroidery and have been embellished with fibres and stitch. Needles and Pins made use of patchwork backgrounds, while Huff and Puff has used printed backgrounds along with the quilting technique Suffolk puffs.
Through exploring female archetypes, nature, and mythology, Vivienne draws on themes from her wider practice in work that retells both personal and universal stories through symbols and thread.
There will be an opening in the gallery on Saturday 6 May, 12-2pm, and the exhibition will run until the 29 July 2023.
