Art and Heritage Online Database

Collection: Gray's School of Art Collection
Object Type: Textile
Artist/Maker: Tame, Rachel
Place Made: United Kingdom: Aberdeenshire, Gray's School of Art
Date: 2021
Awards: RGU Fashion Design Purchase Award
Classification: Design: Textiles and Surface Design BA (Hons)

Description:

Two linen pieces joined together. Features two curved corner, earthy colours and markings made with pigment and prominent black stitching.

Artist statement:
Our countryside is a recognisable but ever-changing fabric, discarding and renewing itself through nature’s growth and the seasons. As humans we distort and change the land, cutting into it, sewing colours and textures which all adds to the rich tapestry of our world.
I looked at shapes and lines found in the varied countryside around us. From the patchwork pattern of fields with contouring plough lines, cracks in rocks and fallen trees, to delicate, fragile flower petals. How they come together to form the fabric of our countryside and how we as humans fit into that landscape.

Rachel Tame is a sustainable textile designer using the surrounding landscape to influence her work. She looks at the parallels between damaged fabric and the mistreatment of the planet. Conveying this idea that our world is not a commodity in which we can throw away and start again, and how we must ‘make do and mend’ the damage we have caused and learn to be more careful with how we handle the fragile fabric that is our planet. Tame looks at the shapes and lines found in the varied countryside around us, developing her work through drawing and painting in and with the landscape on a large scale. She uses flowers in her work as a symbol of hope when it comes to reversing the negative impact we have caused to the planet. Tame looks at how all the different aspects come together to form the fabric that is our countryside and how we as humans fit into that landscape.
Object Number: ABDRG2022.7