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Past Show
Mary Cozens-Walker
'Objects of Obsession'
24 May - 3 July 2004 |
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During February this year,
the Fiberart Gallery represented the exciting work of Mary Cozens-Walker
at COLLECT, the prestigious new art fair supported by the Crafts Council
at the V&A Museum. We are now very pleased to present a solo exhibition
of her work in St Ives.
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Chef Dupont's Apron
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| Chef Casimir
Dupont's Apron, 2004 |
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piece is worked on an old apron that once belonged to Chef Casimir
Dupont, the grandfather of May’s husband, the artist Anthony
Green. Casimir came from Bergerac in the Dordogne region of France
but worked all his professional life in London, at the Carlton
Hotel as sous chef to the great Escoffier and later at the Waldorf
Hotel as chef-de-cuisine. |
The images on the apron are about Mary and Anthony’s
early married life and the kitchen of their flat in London.
Anthony’s three-piece suit and bowler hat were what
he put on for ‘going out’ (a development from
his Edwardian phase). Mary thought of herself as the Elizabeth
David/Katharine Whitethorn of the kitchen!
Mr & Mrs Green were really artists! Inspired by
Grant Wood’s ‘American Gothic’, they
stand in front of the curtain that covered the unused
coke boiler. The mantle shelf above was their ‘home-shelf’,
where they placed family fairground trophies!
Postcards of paintings they liked and disliked adorned
the walls; Mary has chosen images that she likes for
this composition! Their first new linoleum was chequered
and everyone grew spider plants in the 60’s
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Cloth, stitch and paint
114 x 40.6 x 12.7 cm
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| I am What I Am |
Based
on the AD 220 – 50 Egyptian sarcophagus cloths (British Museum)
The head uses the ‘casting in stitch’ method. |
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Lithograph
29.5 x 24.5 cm (unframed)
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| A Ruby Wedding Anniversary |
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joint work with Anthony Green and the Curwen Press. It uses family
images by both artists |
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30
x 68 x 38 cm
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| Whole Cottage |
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To
celebrate buying the other half of her cottage. The plain exterior
opens to reveal the intense detail of the interior, thus emphasising
the ‘value’ of the stitched work.
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Cloth, stitch and paint
68.6 x 45.7 cm
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| Damju - Self-Portrait |
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Cloth,
stitch and paint
106 x 106 cm
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| Specks
of Dust - A Table Carpet |
Sunday
afternoon drive – this is about the regular outings in
Mary’s childhood, the pet dachshund, little sister and
parents
The only family foreign holiday was in the year she went to the Slade School.
These are two of the ‘specks of dust’ (as in a ray of sunshine) – moments
in her childhood on the table carpet
She has used textiles and patterns that occurred in her familyhome. The symbolism
of the pebbles and water around the edge represents time. The table carpet is
in the mode of the use of oriental carpets to cover tables in Europe in the 16th
Century. |
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| Dinner Dance |
| Memories of
her mother getting ready to go to a dinner dance and 1930’s
dressing table ornaments |
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| A Liss on the
Kips Jox Box |
| A naughty boy's
toy |
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9.5
x 7 cm
(1 of 4)
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| COMPACT
LOVERS |
| "In
the tradition of Elizabethan pocket miniatures but with my works
you have a reflection of yourself as well as the stitched portraits" |
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Mixed
media
120 x 30 x 7 cm
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| Head, Heavy |
‘Casting
in stitch’ created the ‘light’ heads, using the ‘heavy’ heads
and thus arriving at two for the price of one!
They are about Mary and her husband Anthony Green. |
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