Counter 2008 video with audio (1 minute 8 seconds)

Quilts 1700 – 2010

2010
Victoria and Albert Museum
Curated by Sue Prichard

Between Counting made for the Quilts exhibition re-interprets an existing video work Counter. The artist is focused on understanding the characteristics of the thousand or so ‘between’ needles which were made in a manufacturing facility in Southern India. With an extensive interest in industrial production the work explores the relationship between manufactured object and hand skill. How can the needles be contained in such large quantities within the hand? Dexterities are adapted as the needles are ‘counted’ in an almost unmanageable way. The video camera is placed in the space created by the activity, between the body and the hands, re-inventing a posture of making. Traditional (needles) and technological (video) tools are combined to offer an insight into what happens before the needle punctures the surface of the cloth and how the body can be viewed as its own site specific.

Between Counting 2009 video with audio (1 minute 43 seconds)

Candy & Code

Rachel Beth Egenhoefer, Barbara Rauch and Nicola Naismith
2008
Institute of Contemporary Art, London
Textile Futures Research group (TFRG) - University of the Arts London
 
The Textile Futures Research Group, University of the Arts London (UAL) and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) explored the coded enquiry of three artists and researchers, Rachel Beth Egenhoefer, TFRG Guest Artist, Dr Barbara Rauch, Deputy Director SCIRIA (Sensory Computer Interface Research & Innovation in the Arts), UAL and Nicola Naismith, Lecturer at Norwich School of Art and Design.
 
Following the presentations, Dr Jane Harris, Director of TFRG, Helen Sloan, Director of SCAN and Jess Laccetti, Institute of Creative Technologies, conducted a panel discussion with the artists.
 

Configurations

Technology and Textiles Networking Afternoon
2008
Http Gallery and Distributed South / SCAN event

An afternoon of sharing ideas, discussing and developing future working around art work that investigates the relationships between new technology, traditional making techniques and transformative political actions. Anna Dumitriu, Ele Carpenter, Nicola Naismith and Rachel Beth Egenhoefer each presented their practice discussing diverse approaches to the making of work using new technology alongside textiles. A "Long Table Discussion" followed, an experimental public forum developed by performance artist Lois Weaver.

134 per hour

2008
Installation for Kettles Yard Open
Drawings upon the measures of competency explored in the Foundling Museum Commission, the work for the Kettles Yard open explores repetition and labour intensity. Will the needles threaded and ready for use ever be extracted from the hooks and used?

134 per hour 2008 installation thread, needles, hooks (dimensions variable)
Installation View 2008 showing Betweens & Betweens Reverse and 134 per hour
Installation photographs courtesy of Kettles Yard

Taken from the exhibition guide by Gill Hedley “Nicola Naismith has explored the idea of apprenticeships and the Foundling Hospital vision of turning the children into useful citizens through preparation for work. Interested in how apprenticeships work practically (via mimicking, copying and perfecting) she uses traditional skills and re-invents them via digital and integrated making techniques. Accounts of apprenticeships, daily activities and measures of competency have informed her research. With a focus on tailoring, white and blue collar working the relationships between conceptual and manual dexterities are explored in this work. Looking at ideas of tradition and re-invention, she compares the effect of ‘learning verbatim and the potential for more creative interpretations of skills, tools and materials’. The theme of apprenticeships makes a natural progression for the deeper examination of subjects on which she usually focuses: hand and digital making: tools: process: the body as site specific”.

Left to right:
33 stitches per minute Installation view Social History Gallery Foundling Museum
33 stitches per minute 2007 photographic light box (110cm x 34 cm x 11cm)
Process Worksheets 2007 hand drawn artist book (31cm x 43cm x 2cm)
Process Worksheets 2007 detail
Process 2007 10,000 hand sewing needles (dimensions variable)

en masse was produced as part of Working Practices (2007 - 2009) a self initiated project supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, Norfolk County Council Arts Project Fund, Sir Philip Reckitt Educational Trust, Commissions East and the former Space 4 gallery in Peterborough Museum.

Between Counting was commissioned by the V&A Museum for the Quilts 1700 - 2010 exhibition.

RSVP contemporary artists at the foundling was initiated and developed by Commissions East in partnership with the Foundling Museum. Supported by the Foundling Museum, Commissions East, Escalator Visual Arts and the Arts Council.