Beverly Ayling-Smith The Language of Grief: Cloth as a metaphor for loss

University for the Creative Arts  (UCA) is proud to present a solo exhibition of recent work by textile artist, Beverly Ayling-Smith. Over the past three years, Ayling-Smith has been based within the School of Crafts and Design at UCA undertaking a PhD by Practice. The Language of Grief: Cloth as a metaphor for lossbrings together the resulting research in the form of a compelling series of works, which explore the emotive subject of mourning. Using materials such as linen and bedsheets to encourage a focus on the emotional dimension to the words grief, loss and absence, Ayling-Smith’s work highlights how, even when the immediate feelings of grief and mourning have passed, we are changed forever; these emotions, embedded in the fabric of our lives, can re-emerge at different times to stain our emotional state.

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated brochure, which includes texts by Beverly Ayling-Smith, Professor Lesley Millar and Dr Victoria Kelley.

Biography
Beverly Ayling-Smith has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally and has work in the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester collection and in collections in the USA. She has also presented her research at international conferences and has had her work published in the UK. She recently contributed a chapter to the anthology The Strangled Cry: the communication and experience of Trauma, edited by Aparajita Nandy and Peter Bray, published by Interdisciplinary Press, 2013.

Artist Talk:
Tuesday 8 November 2016, 4.00pm
Followed by Reception

 Image Credit: Steve White