J’ai tout d’abord découvert les bijoux de Joanne HAYWOOD à la Galerie CARACTERE, à Neuchatel (CH) : premier coup de coeur …. en attente de faire des économies ! 
Joanne haywood -Garden Rings – 2008-09 -coton crocheté, argent noirci
J’en profite pour vous présenter cette expostion : « Thread Bare », à la Rochester Art Gallery.
« Thread Bare » presents four contemporary artist-makers who use textiles to explore the human condition and gender-related concerns, relationships between past and present, and narratives constructed around personal and cultural identity. Contradictions and ambiguities abound in each artist’s work. Craig Fisher’s soft, sculptural installations question representations of violence and macho stereotypes whilst Lucy Brown explores the complex issue of female identity, reworking vintage garments into abstracted, figurative forms. Joanne Haywood takes part with her recent work. Mixed-media jewellery draws on the conflicts of opposites : skeletal wire forms and fleshy crocheted volumes; the natural and unnatural; the absence or presence of colour; the interplay of light and shadow.
Joanne haywood -’Bauble’ ( 2006-07) - ‘Fibonacci’ (2008-09) – ‘Big Red’ (2006-07)
Joanne Haywood’s work takes up the human story through pieces that reach back into the faraway history of the Thames Valley and the exposed objects that come to light through mudlarking. Taking the clay pipes that speak in their materiality of the bones and shell that also archaeologically evidence London’s history, Haywood is interested in the transitional, as seen through metal oxidisation or the juxtaposing of skeletal metal and the fleshliness of textiles.
In her Pipe Flower Neckpieces, she builds onto the historical artefact something of the living textile, reminiscent of the loss of textile artefacts to water damage and time but also indicative of the re-inventive power of threads. Like Minta’s missing brooch in Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse, (in) significant objects, especially those of desire sustain and prevail, and offer themselves unexpectedly from the past for our engagement and re-visitation.
‘Bilston Commission’ Detail (2009-10) - ‘Artifact Neckpiece Indigo’ (2009-10) – ‘Tree’ Ring (2008-09)
Joanne Haywood défini son travail ainsi : My work explores the essence of materials and the permanence of jewellery as physical objects and a transitional idea. Wire compositions are altered by charcoal and wood oxidisation
…. » Drawing on the contradiction and conflicts of opposites: Skeletal forms and fleshy volumes, natural and unnatural, the absence of colour and the addition of colour, light and shadow, within and beyond control.
(source blog « mar de Color Rosa« )
http://theneedlefiles.blogspot.com/ : the Joanne Haywood blog for more information
Rochester Art Gallery
Medway Visitor Information Centre,
Ground Floor, 95 High Street,
Rochester, Kent, ME1 1LX – UK
Opening hours : Mon-Sat 10am – 5pm, Sun 10.30am – 5pm, Free admission
BOOK !
« Mixed-media Jewellery – Methods and Techniques (Design and Make) » – Joanne haywood
