Ariella Green Lancashire, United Kingdom
I am a textile artist in independent practice and a member of Contemporary Applied Arts (https://www.caa.org.uk/artists/ariella-green/). I work mainly in the textile collage medium and exhibit widely in the UK and internationally.
I am a professional textile artist who has exhibited widely in UK and internationally. After initial training in nursing, I studied Foundation at St Martin’s School of Art and then Textile Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London (BA Hons 1980). Since graduation, I have had regular one person and group shows. I participated in the Craft Council "Chelsea Comes to California" exhibition (Los Angeles, 1990) and over many years in the "62" textile and “New Fibre Art” groups. Since 2012, I have had 20 individual and group shows of textile collages; delivered lecture-based teaching (eg London Quilters group, 2016, with related feature in the Quilter magazine). I am a selected member of the Contemporary Applied Arts (CAA) Gallery, London (https://www.caa.org.uk/), ‘a membership gallery representing some of the most talented and skilled applied artists working in Britain today.’
My technique is essentially fabric collage, using material I have prepared myself; finished with applique, hand stitching and paint. The fabric may be silk, polyester or cotton. They are prepared in bulk using silk screen-printing of mainly photographic images; transfer paints; crayons and fabric paints. Direct application of paint and resist techniques are also used. All the pigments are colourfast and heat fixed. This stock of fabric provides a palette of colours and forms for later use in collage. The fabrics are pieced and stitched in collage on a Vilene backing. Machine stitch is used at this stage using coloured cotton thread. The work is further developed and finished with hand stitching, found materials and fabric paint. The finished work is usually mounted on acid free card, framed and glazed. Some work is displayed unglazed in a box frame, or suspended without mounting within a frame using invisible thread.
My current work particularly focuses on use of the textile collage method with themes of myth, fairy-tale, and the integration of cultures. For years my studio work focused on themes connected with my move to Europe from Israel in the 1970s and the balance of memory and new reality within such displacement. Recently I have added to this an increasing response to the international world; how difficult it is truly to reach each other across cultures and experience despite all our modern means of communication. Some of this new work has used the Tower of Babel myth to express the possibilities in diversity as well as difficulties in communication, and dangers in misunderstanding.
The collage technique remains deeply suited to the way I bring these themes into expression. The process of working on the collage helps me to think and to discover thoughts and feelings. I have deep pleasure in the technical side of manipulating the fabrics either using discharge technique or direct painting with fabric paint onto textiles and the use of screenprint. Increasingly I have used stencilling from photographic images.
In 2020 I responded to the covid crisis and lockdown with a sequence of 25 textile collage pieces made over 5 weeks. These have been transformed now into a video with music and words: Ariella Green 'A Covid Diary' displayed on Curator Space and available at https://www.caa.org.uk/artists/ariella-green/ - a Covid Diary.
A selection of my work is visible on my website and all are for sale.
