The team at Inverness Museum & Art Gallery is looking forward to welcoming the artist Mark Lomax to this city centre location on Saturday afternoon (11th March). The artist will be in the city to talk about his exhibition Lost Threads and Severed Ties, which is currently on show in the Main Art Gallery.
High Life Highland’s Cathy Shankland, the museum’s Exhibition Officer said, “The quilt has a rich history that crosses many social and cultural boundaries. For some it is the means of expressing very personal themes and ideas. For others it is the chance to follow in a rich social tradition that sees groups of people and communities coming together in fruitful collaboration.
“For Mark Lomax the quilt is both. The significance of the quilt in its role as a social activity, its means of construction and its global significance is important. It is a clearly identifiable object with a strong history, multiple associations and its own symbols and language. The quilt is the perfect vehicle for exploring Lomax’s interests in memory, personal and social identity, history and culture.”
Lomax creates his quilts from materials more commonly used in the building trade. Cement, filler, wood, wire and metal sheeting are combined with paint and recycled textiles to produce the rich surfaces and intricate textures that make up his finished pieces.
Lomax explains, “It was while researching memory failure in Alzheimer’s and Dementia sufferers that I started to look at common processing, retrieval issues and memory triggers.
“After working through a series of possible categories I focussed on memories based on domestic situations and everyday life. This involved the use of objects that we most associate with the home and family living. Included in this category are furniture, ceramics, tableware, and more importantly, textiles.
“The colours and patterns used in curtains, soft furnishings, rugs, carpets, quilts and clothing are common to all of us. By utilising familiar elements that are associated with domestic objects it is possible to trigger or evoke memories. Like the readymade, the quilt with its appropriated past and re-purposed materials, has a built-in history by association.”
Mark Lomax, originally from Felixstowe, is a mixed media artist based in the Highlands of Scotland. Having started out as a ceramicist, his trademark style of filler and paint on metal shares many of the techniques and characteristics associated with textiles and fibre art. His quilts and rug-based pieces are stitched together using wire and much of his work is influenced by the patterns and designs found in knitting, weaving and printed textiles from around the world.
The quilt, with its methods of construction, has global significance in its role in cultural identity. It is a clearly identifiable object with a strong history, multiple associations and its own symbols and language. The quilt is the perfect vehicle for exploring Lomax’s interests in memory, personal and social identity, history and culture.
By utilising familiar elements that are associated with domestic objects, whether they are textile or ceramics based, it is possible to trigger or evoke memories.
The artist concluded, “It was while researching memory failure in Alzheimer’s and Dementia sufferers that I started to look at common processing and retrieval issues and memory triggers.
After working through a series of possible categories I focussed on memories based on domestic situations and everyday life.
“This involves objects that we most associate with the home and family living. Included in this area are furniture, ceramics, tableware, and more importantly, textiles.
The colours and patterns used in curtains, soft furnishings, rugs, carpets, quilts and clothing are common to all of us.”
Cathy Shankland and the Inverness Museum team are inviting visitors to drop-in and meet the artist at the session on Saturday afternoon. There is no charge for the event, but as High Life Highland is a charity, donations are welcome.
‘Lost Threads and Severed Ties’ runs until 15th April at Inverness Museum & Art Gallery before moving to the Thurso Gallery, Caithness from 6th May – 1st July.
