And on it went some more. More? Well we are still in Cork Street and on with it, the final cold wet Friday of January Part Four and the metaphorical dimensions of the other side of the road and the various aspects of a metaphor that can be considered when analysing its meaning and interpretation and why did the chicken cross the road? Well it wasn’t to get to the other side where the front window of Flowers is looking enticing once more and crossing the road is a powerful component of the poetry of architecture. I do like Flowers Gallery, it is one of the more intimate galleries on the street, one of the warmer spaces, inviting, quietly lit, constantly rewarding. Right now there’s a Jakkai Siributr exhibition on and rather like turning the corner back to the back room of the Jim Hodges show in Part Three, it is another wow moment. is it that I’m too easily pleased? An art magpie picking at that treasure like bots of silver foil and colourful paint, it does immediately raise the spirits in here, art does that before you really focus. The immersive exhibition features three bodies of textile works, including from Jakkai Siributr’s large scale, free hanging ‘Outworn’ series.
“The intricately-made works in ‘Outworn’ are assembled with uniforms from the tourism profession, rendered obsolete during the pandemic, that were collected through monetary exchange as a way to assist those financially impacted at the time. The uniforms were disassembled and remade into tapestries, bedecked with Buddhist symbols, beads, artificial Marigold flowers and other found and talismanic objects, the adornments reflecting Siributr’s consistent examination of the interaction between Buddhism and materialism in modern life”.
Big textile pieces, hangings, hangings that excite and once you’ve passed the sugar rush, hangings that demand your attention, that you read them, try to follow the figures, the symbols, the people, there’s something powerful about textile art that you don’t quite get with anything else…
“Jakkai Siributr (b 1969) lives in Bangkok and is one of Southeast Asia’s leading contemporary artists, working primarily in the textile medium. He is known for his intricately handmade tapestries, quilts and installations, which convey powerful responses to contemporary and historical societal issues in Thailand, migration and personal stories of grief and remembrance”.
is it silly to mention the Bayeux tapestry? “Through Siributr’s immersive practice highlighting overlooked and neglected stories of groups that have been largely ignored, on display within the exhibition are multiple textile series spanning from 2016 to 2023, addressing themes of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic and ethnic minorities and exploring the experiences of displaced refugees”. I mean you walk in, you are immediately excited, engaged, invited to get close in, you smile at the person who just smiled at you, acknoledge that shared enjoyment without having to say a work. you walk around and then you do start to read it. Here’s a #43SecondFilm…
“The first UK exhibition of Siributr’s work, There’s no Place, at The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (November 2024 – March 2025), surveys his practice and features a transformation of one of The Whitworth’s core collection galleries into the latest iteration of the artist’s long-term project There’s no Place. Exploring ideas of home and belonging, this collaborative embroidery piece creates an ongoing dialogue between the artist, the community of Koung Jor Shan Refugee Camp and viewers around the world and was featured in The Spirits of Maritime Crossing, presented by the Bangkok Art Biennale as an Official Collateral Event at the 2024 Venice Biennale”.
And you walk around these pieces and the art takes you deeper in, it informs, it questions, a stitch in time? Black death, yellow fever, cat’s eyes? I was looking for something good, clean, fine, pure, straight, but instead I found the bunker wall and gate…
“These works were created as a dialogue with my mother by meditatively stitching her old clothes together with mine in the tradition of quilt-making. It is an homage to all the quilters of the American South and from around the world whose crafts have inspired me since my university days as a textile student. These constructed pieces were then meticulously embellished with beads and imageries. Our conversations centred around current world events that include the pandemic, racism and violence against minorities, right-wing politicians and toxic masculinity. These issues are similar to the ones my mother cared deeply about in her days”. Oh those textile student days, almost another world now, mine that is, it was never meditative for me though, I guess there is some community in the shared work, these big pieces are wonderful, art is almost always personal, almost a private experience.
And then quietly slide down that the corridor to The Redfern Gallery, only there’s someone coming the other way and there’s no room to pass and the drama of the entry is ruined, entering a gallery is always best treated as ritual. There’s a rather enjoyable exhibition of more recent paintings by Danny Romeril, a body of work that explores the human relationship with space and memory, that takes a look at the dancing around architecture and the urban environment some of us live in, the red brick buildings, the shop fronts, the shape of crowds, the actual action of painting, the colourful process.
On round the corner and Royal Academy artist milking shed end Saville Row, can’t help than glance up to the roof just in case Paul and Ringo are up there, off to see the recently opened Sojourner Truth Parsons show at Pilar Corrias Gallery, the artist’s first solo show in the space. An exhibition called Blue Goes Away and new paintings that we’re told “act as indices for moments of intensity and intimacy. Through her use of rich, vibratory tones, the artist locates and extracts fleeting details from our quietest moments: the subtle interactions of light, the flickering of memory and thought”. It is all richly blue, it is a rhythmic set of spaces, the blues save it from being like so many things we’ve probably all seen or indeed painted ourselves, those predominant reds and blues, the small patches of yellows and oranges do feel good for an in real life standing in here minute or two but really…
Flowers Cork Street is found at 21 Cork Street, London, W1S 3LZ. The Gallery is open Monday to Saturday, 10am until 6pm. The Jakkai Siributr exhibition closes at end of play on Saturday 8th February. Previous Flowers coverage on these pages
The Redfern Gallery is found at 20 Cork Street, London W1S 3HL. Opening hours Mon to Fri – 11.00am to 5.30pm, Saturday – 11:00am to 2.00pm. The Danny Romeril ends on February 7th. Hang on, stop press, the show is now extended until February 21st.
Pilar Corrias is found at 2 Savile Row, London, W1S 3PA. The Gallery is open Tuesday to Friday, 11am until 6pm so I guess if you work a regular nine to five Monday to Friday then you’re stuffed. The Sojourner Truth Parsons exhibition is on until 8th March
Previously…
As always, do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show
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