In response to our exhibition Outstretched with Alexander Haywood, Silian Gallery hosted an embroidery workshop on Saturday 14th October 2023, with collaborating artist Coco WA.
The workshop aimed to provide students with the opportunity to connect with their inner self through the therapeutic exercise of embroidery, breathing new life into vintage fabric whilst immersing in the outer worldly serene presented by the exhibition. During the session, Coco began by teaching 8 stitches ranging from beginner to more complex and decorative techniques, and then allowing students the opportunity to freestyle on their own patches of William Morris vintage fabric provided with the new skills that they have learnt.
This workshop focused on abstract pattern-making based on the exhibition around them, encouraging you to draw from the feelings, emotions, and subtle states of consciousness evoked by the immense depth and vastness depicted on surrounding canvases. At the end of the workshop, we aim to leave you feeling grounded in your own body and inner landscape; through using the meditative process of embroidery, further encouraging introspection and connection.
COCO WA
Coco WA is a multi-media artist, born and raised in London, who combines fine art with craft. Her textile practise values community at its core, with craft and humour being used as a tool to aid healing from the late-capitalist patriarchal society that we live in.
Coco WA uses embroidery in her practise to communicate personal thoughts and bigger social issues. She began embroidery during lockdown as a mode to calm and heal from stressors and haven’t been able to put down the needle since. WA believes that embroidery and needlework have great benefits for mental health and it is intertwined with the collective history of women all over the globe.
Taking on a diarist format, WA specifically explores female identity and traditional concepts of femininity, often exploiting the delicacy and domesticity of embroidery, beading and knitting by producing pieces that watch the spectator back, denying voyeurism and passivity. She subverts the traditional use of embroidery as a mode to keep women with their hands busy and minds idle. Through her work, WA aims to reclaim and modernise the female history of textiles and embroidery by engaging in a larger social commentary of what society expects from women, to be sweet, demure and docile.