Two exhibitions at Ruthin

Made it to Ruthin Craft Centre this week, it being the last week of the current exhibitions.  I specifically wanted to see the Kevin Coates exhibition 'A Bestiary of Jewels', which I managed not to visit in Oxford.  I've discovered that it's going on to Nottinghamshire and later to Edinburgh, but Ruthin was now, and nearer (and given another few days, I'd have managed not to visit it there as well). 

It was exactly as all the adverts for the travelling collection have shown - beautiful little drawn and painted settings for exquisite jewellery - and I'm glad we made the trip.  Using the medieval bestiaries as a starting point, Coates chose to match each animal with a significant person - such as the inevitable lobster with Gérard de Nerval (he famously had a pet one), a starling with Mozart (again, the pet thing), a barbary ape with Rose Macauley (didn't notice why but I'm guessing probably not to do with pets?).  The connections were explained, along with a description of the work and materials involved in the structure of the jewellery.  They were gorgeous and amazingly wrought little things and I could happily go and pore over them again tomorrow.   Perhaps (oh yeah?) I could catch up with them again at one of the later venues?  Perhaps.

The main exhibition on at the centre was 'Construct - explorations of identity by eight textile artists'.  Foolishly, I had half dismissed it, thinking it would be, I don't know, just not my thing I suppose, but it was fascinating.  Some of the work didn't connect with me, but a significant amount of it did.  I was particularly taken by a quilt and other pieces from Caren Garfen, work that took on the issue of gender politics, with neat little screenprinted extracts all over the place quoting from research into the subject.  It was only after reading most of the quilt, a pillowcase and some kitchen towel (all very text-based) that I saw some hankies on dieting and realised I had seen them in the exhibition 62@50 in the Holden Gallery two years ago (when the artist was Caren Green, if I got my facts right then).  On her website she makes the (I thought) edgy little observation that for fifteen years she created tiny, high-end and internationally sold samplers for dollshouses as a craftsperson, but now that she has taken an applied arts degree she is working as an artist. 

How many times do I have to repeat myself?

Ruthin isn't exactly around the corner, I know, but neither is it difficult to get to, and it's always worth the journey.  The gallery space is light and airy and such exhibitions as I've been to have always been thought-provoking in some way or other, be it the underlying philosophy or the interconnection between work or the sheer quality of craftsmanship/artistry.  I shouldn't leave it so long between visits.