'Common Threads' Group Exhibition

Last week saw the opening event of Northern Ireland’s Linen Biennale 2023 marked with the launch of ‘Common Threads’, a group exhibition that I was delighted to participate in with some recent work. I took my ‘biggest’ little man down to the show and we both wore our best linen. I exhibited a collection of my signature sculpted rose cushions an array of sumptuous, soft pinks. The palest ‘blush’, sitting plumply on top of the chair is a vintage Irish Linen, the pinkest is an organic Irish Linen that I’ve been saving up for some time, and the orangey toned one is made from a very special handwoven Irish Linen from Hermann and Marion of Flax Mill Textiles studio formerly in County Londonderry - a raspberry pink yarn mixed in with a beautiful golden one, creating a stunning warm, subtle, shimmer. I first designed the rose cushion style back in 2015 for a trade show with the British European Design Group in New York as part of New York Design Week and have carried on with the piece since, creating it in amazing different linens, releasing small batches of varying colour tones and stories each year. It’s essence is relaxed, textured linen with delicate frayed edges. The exhibition is on display at the Island Arts Centre in Lisburn City in Northern Ireland. Lisburn is an area of condensed linen making back when the industry was at its height at the turn of the century. The Biennale and ‘Common ‘Threads’ celebrate both the heritage and future of linen and flax. The exhibition runs until the August 26th but for those of you who are further afield I’ve attached some images detailing the day below. There was some very skilled, beautiful and thought provoking artwork. It was lovely to be in the show after having exhibited a handmade patchwork heirloom quilt in the last Linen Biennale festival, “Fragments of Time’ back in 2018 (with a gap in the biennale years due to covid).

The exhibition features the work of 13 local and international artists including:

Gina Pierce (England)

Alison Baxter (England)

Ina Holohan (Ireland)

Angela Burns (Turkey)

Birgit Schoenaker (Belgium)

Margaret Russell (USA)

Pat Griffin (Northern Ireland)

Heather Richardson (Northern Ireland)

Hilary Cromie (Northern Ireland)

Anna Smyth (Northern Ireland)

Amy Higgins (Northern Ireland)