Quilt "Aberdeen Study IV"
Artist
Pauline Burbidge
(Dorset, England, born 1950)
Date2001
Object NameQuilt
Mediumcotton
ClassificationsTextiles
Dimensions202 x 202 cm
AcquisitionPurchased in 2001 with assistance from the National Fund for Acquisitions, the Scottish Arts Council and with income from the John Black Trust.
Copyright© Pauline Burbidge (2001)
LocationView by Appointment
Object numberABDAG011164
About MePauline Burbidge is one of the country's leading textile artists. She has been resident in the Scottish Borders for several years and developed a distinctive body of work based on various aspects of the Scottish landscape.'Aberdeen Study IV' was inspired by a residency in Aberdeen during 1999. In response to the reflections of oil supply vessels on the water at Aberdeen Harbour, she has intuitively translated these transient colours and patterns into fabric and stitch. The palette is simple and limited, echoing the meditative quality of the work.
The design follows a sixteen square grid pattern, a traditional quilt formation, with complex free form interleaving of slashed fabric pieces and overstitching. Burbidge's method is to attach fabric to fusible web before freely and perceptively cutting the fabric as the light and colours of her preparatory photographs inspire. Once she is happy with design, she bonds the fabric to a ground of plain white cloth. Individual blocks are stitched and quilted to add pattern, texture and to highlight the strips. The blocks are finally sewn together to complete the quilt. Change and shifting patterns recur regularly as structural motifs within Burbidge's work, leading to a sequential whole as an image (in this case a reflected hull) moves across the discipline of the grid structure.
More About Me
The design was based on the transient patterns and colours of the reflections of oil supply boats in Aberdeen harbour.
Exhibitions
Crombie
Archie Brennan