ARTISTS TALKING

Nina Madden talks to Shelly Goldsmith about her career to date, and discovers what receiving the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize in 2002 has meant to her.

Path to success

Shelly Goldsmith, senior lecturer at Winchester School of Art, won this year's Jerwood Applied Arts Prize in Textiles.

This applied arts prize is much sought-after as it is one of the few competitions for textile artists in this country. As it works on a cycle of jewellery, ceramics, textiles, glass and furniture, the opportunity to apply only occurs every five years.

Goldsmith graduated with a BA in textiles from West Surrey College of Art and Design. She went on to the Royal College of Art where she completed an MA in painting. Shortly afterwards, she set up her studio and began to exhibit.

She has been teaching at Winchester for 11 years and she was responsible for setting up the MA degree course in textile art. She has exhibited worldwide in both crafts and fine art contexts.

Goldsmith's work engages with the technique, history and theory of textiles. She was trained in the French Gobelin tradition, and her early work was known to deface the visual language of tapestry, cutting up pieces, bleaching out large areas of colour and sowing it back together again using her own hair.

This early work also engaged with painterly concerns, of translating the line into the medium of tapestry and weaving large meticulous pieces in which illusions of layering were explored.

Making and unmaking

Over the years, Goldsmith's approach has changed but her work remains an enquiry into, and deconstruction of her chosen medium: "We spend so much of our lives wrapped up in cloth. As soon as we are born we are wrapped into a piece of cloth and then when we die we are wrapped into another piece of cloth."

Lately, Goldsmith has explored these ideas through a process of unmaking – by teasing out the threads, what now remains on display is that which is traditionally hidden from view.

In the more recent work, the tapestry has become a three-dimensional construction, a departure from contemporary interest in flat woven wall hangings, and the warp, the skeleton of the piece as it were, has become predominant.

She has also introduced nylon monofilament warp that forms a translucent and slippery interior, an interior that is sometimes allowed to spill over the edge, as if water overflowing.

Winning the prize

What did winning the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize mean in terms of advancing her career prospects? Perhaps it is too early to say, but Goldsmith believes that it has raised her profile: "I have received more attention, people want me to give talks, and to interview me. I have also received an offer for a book."

So far, winning the prize has not lead to any direct requests for sales or new commissions, but she says that: "The way that this money has really helped me is that it supports my lifestyle, and it thereby enables me to make more work".

Winning also seems to have had a ripple effect in her immediate environment and she says: "It is very inspiring for the students because it gives recognition to their chosen specialism, it acknowledges textile art as an exciting field of practice".

Update 2006

The last few years have seen a number of group exhibitions that present the work in a wider context, including ‘Out of Place’, The New Art Gallery, Walsall; ‘Depth of Field: Conversations between photography and textiles’, mac, Birmingham, and ‘Obsession’, Sartorial Contemporary, London.

Other major exhibitions include ‘Reveal’ – Nottingham Castle Museum; ‘becoming’ – Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and ‘Threadbare’ – Waterside Arts Centre, Manchester.
Ongoing projects include Transition and Influence: the interface between cloth and culture, an international project curated by Lesley Millar, and a solo exhibition at Fabrica Brighton, the culmination of a research project to explore the Japanese Mizuko Jizo Shrine.

In 2006 I left my post as Head of Textile Art at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton in order to concentrate on studio practice, international consultancy and to contribute to a small number of MA and Undergraduate programmes. I have relocated my studio from London to Ramsgate.

The writer

Nina Madden is a writer, critic and arts manager based in London.

Nina Madden

Nina Madden is a writer critic and arts manager based in London.