Margaret Marks
About the work for Transept:Traverse
Prayer Cloth
Bible, thread, translucent fabric
£600Folded and draped, this cloth, made from the pages of a Bible, is a symbolic representation of the shawls, mats, cloths or kneelers used by many different religions in the pursuance of prayer.
This aged and worn constructed textile, like the inscriptions on memorials now almost illegible after many feet have passed over their surfaces, alludes to the successive generations of worshipers, who over nine centuries, have knelt, or sat, in the Cathedral for contemplation, worship and prayer. Incorporated into the cloth are translucent colours as if reflected from the stained glass windows, to represent the prayers and thoughts rising up through the holy space.
Biography
Margaret gained a First Class BA Honours (Fine Art) at Chichester University in 2005. Prior to this, as a textile artist, she taught and exhibited for many years, both in USA and UK; patchwork being her core technique.
The skills, which had defined her earlier work, have in recent years been transformed into the manipulation of film. The time consuming processes of frame by frame manipulation and animation have echoes of the processes involved in stitching and quilting. Rhythm, pattern and repetition, both in textiles and film, are recurring elements in her work, together with deconstruction and reconstruction.
