Story of Place | From Folkestone to London

24 April - 24 May 2024

Three Artists Craft Personal Narratives Through Materials

Maria Smith | Thurle Wright | Robyn Neild

During London Craft, visit the gallery to meet the artists, listen to their inspiration for the show and see some demonstrations with paper, textiles and bronze

This collaborative project evokes the shore and natural world of Folkestone within the gallery, using a wide range of materials and textures.

jaggedart presents Story of Place, an exhibition that brings together three artists currently working in Folkestone’s Creative Quarter: Maria Smith, Thurle Wright, and Robyn Neild. All of the women in this show are makers interested in material, texture, and re-crafting their environments.

The artists have all spent time at the cottage of film director Derek Jarman in Dungeness. There, they felt the pull of isolation and the wilderness around them. This shared inspiration manifests in their work where they use material to explore their personal experiences.

A key element of these artists’ work is their recreation and remaking of the material which surrounds them. Each artist utilises found or repurposed materials in order to create a highly personal narrative. Their works all similarly consider the transformation of time and its link to place - from foraged organic matter to reclaimed books - how do these works retain a connection to their original forms? In this collaborative exhibition, the works of the three artists express their individuality while working in communication to convey the similarity in the motivations of each.

Maria Smith creates woven textiles that respond to the world around her - from the tide lines on nearby beaches to the reclaimed materials she uses in her work. Her process is a meditative one, allowing her to develop and process her experiences. Mixing wool and fabric, her textiles interweave fishing nets and ropes with organic grasses from the Folkestone area. Her textiles take the shape of vessels, some displaying roots and taking on organic forms, some using ceramic, as well as large wall-hangings.

Thurle Wright’s practice revolves around the printed word, reclaiming pages from the Bible, classic literature and dictionaries to create her intricate paper weavings. She meticulously cuts, folds, and recrafts texts, deconstructing their original purpose to reimagine them in her own style. The text remains readable in her pieces, yet is separated from their original contexts. Thurle’s work, her Folkestone Cope, is inspired by Radio 4’s “Desert Island Discs”, in which an interviewee is left alone on an island with only the Bible, The Complete Works of Shakespeare and a luxury of their choice. Here, Thurle uses the Bible, works by Shakespeare, and natural materials from Folkestone to craft her own personal story.

Robyn Neild explores transformation in her ‘lost wax’ bronze sculptures. As she integrates natural material into her designs, she emphasises growth and decay impacted by the passage of time. Robyn gathers plants and brambles on her walk which she binds together and casts in bronze. She leaves personal touches such as fingerprints in her work, creating an indelible link to herself and her craft in each piece. In her bramble and bronze cottages, Robyn creates sanctuaries which seem to both be able to provide shelter and entrap in thorny barriers.

The three previously collaborated to display their shared processes at Folkestone Art Gallery in 2023. Now, on display in London, the nuances of place and time can be reinterpreted once again as the works inhabit a new setting.