STEPHEN WRIGHT

Level six (third year) Textiles students were lucky enough to participate in a week-long programme of talks and workshops lead by London based designer Stephen Wright.

Stephen’s work challenges the everyday use of objects – he uses  discarded objects to create mosaics: milk bottle tops, broken dolls, dolls eyeballs, the contents of Christmas crackers, false teeth, pen lids, crockery, and the rich pickings of a car boot sale. Seemingly worthless ubiquitous objects are turned into jewels that become an integral part of the stories he tells. His interest is driven by the impromptu aesthetic qualities that they offer. Wright’s use of objects is Outsider Art. A Baroque Art for our times.

Stephen is the artist behind ‘House of Dreams’ which is described on the website as ‘An opera of colour and texture adorns the walls of his Art Gallery/home and garden. Each room is a richly embroidered tapestry interwoven with his stories. He has created his own Mexico in a quiet grey street in Dulwich. The house is bequeathed to the National Trust and open to visitors by appointment.’

The artist’s unique way at looking at the world was brought in to his workshops and talks with our final year textiles students to lend to their conceptual thinking within their projects. Encouraging students to be subjective within their work to create something personal allows the students to embrace unique styles which can’t be emulated by other designers.

A gallery of images from the workshops can be found below:

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