Stitchwork

Introduction

My work with fabric and stitching began in Australia during a Residency in Newcastle, NSW at the Lock Up Cultural Centre. During the residency, I undertook a number of walks around Newcastle all of which I plotted with GPS, combined together and then stitched with a large piece of canvas.

The completed walks as shown in Google Earth and my GPS software:

all as of 05-11-10

8 Sections of the Main Map

Using this as a template, I drew the pattern onto the canvas and then cut them out before stitching them back together. Th eresult was a piece based on the Transportation of my ancestor Stephen Hedges to Australia in 1828 - The Repaired Sail of HMS York 1828.

Repaired Sail of HMS York (1828)

This approach of using GPS data as a pattern-maker for stitched artworks formed the basis of three pieces I made about the First World War.

Trench Map Deckchairs

Overlaying a trench map on an area of the Somme (Serre) in Google Earth, I drew in the trenches and exported the data to my GPS software:

Trench Map Deckchairs

This then formed the basis of my stitched works, some of which can be seen in the images below:

Left

Centre

It's often the case that the reverse side of these pieces are more interesting than the front - something I will be working on with regards these works over the coming months.

03-rev

Repaired sail of HMS York 1828