Natasha Kerr'At the End of the Day'
London
2007
Transfer printed, silk screen printed, hand painted, hand stitched linen
Natasha Kerr creates complex, multi-layered objects that resonate with the hidden histories of family heirlooms and everyday objects. 'At the End of the Day' takes as its starting point a series of family photographs given to Kerr by her mother. Tucked away for many years in a cupboard below the stairs, these images provided Kerr with what she describes as a 'visual thread', linking her to an otherwise unknown part of her family history. At the centre of this piece is her grandfather, a Viennese surgeon who came to Britain in 1936. Interned during the Second World War, he was released to carry out essential work as a surgeon. The transfer print depicts him lying prone on a blanket in a garden: one of the few images taken of him in repose. Her grandmother sits alongside, shielding her eyes from the sun, and an empty chair completes the picture. The stitched fabric radiates away from the image, and the artist describes the process of a flag taking shape as she worked. The empty chair is a poignant marker of both displacement and absence: a testimony to the condition of invisibility shared by many during these years.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/textiles/quilts-1700-2010/
i'd really like to go to this exhibition.
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