Kay Greenlees
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I currently teach full time in the School of Education at the University of Leeds. My teaching experience is varied and ranges from working with adult education groups, MA and BA textile design students and school groups. Part of my teaching involves me with students training to teach textiles and art and design and my written research often reflects this interest in aspects of textile education.
Alongside my teaching commitment I have maintained an exhibition and workshop profile. I have exhibited nationally and in Japan, Cyprus and the USA. I have given workshops in both this country and abroad, working with other European Universities. A series of workshops for universities, adults, in-service teachers and school pupils has been based around aspects of landscape and machine embroidery.
As well as belonging to the PSG I am a member of DATA and NSEAD, The Embroiderers' Guild, The Design History Society and a member and past Chair of the Textile Society. I am also a Companion of the Guild of St. George (Ruskin Society).
I have recently published 'Creating Sketchbooks' for embroiderers and textile artists and this has formed the basis for a range of current workshops.
My current work investigates 'the culture of sewing' by seeking to re-locate the idea of women as workers with the objects and tools of their trade. For example in museums sewing machines are exhibited as inventions with other machines and are removed from the idea of garment production either industrially or in the home. Women have often used the most commonplace items to create things with individual meaning and beauty. Both (the women and the objects) are valued as the 'Underrated Treasures' which forms the title of this series of explorations as well as the title of a specific piece of work. All the pieces have an almost hidden reference to the Suffragettes by including their colours in the piece.
>'The Inheritance' examines contradictions inherent in using mass produced items to make work which becomes an expression of personal identity. As items are used, re-used and handed down as heirlooms, antiques or bric-a-brac each new use brings a changing meaning to the object by changing its context. 'The Inheritance' seeks to encapsulate some of these ideas and reinterprets them for the viewer to unwrap; to wonder, question, admire, remember and re-think. Presented as a casket, within which is stored another box containing the handed down items, the work reminds viewers of the rather precious 'box of bits' that most of us have in a drawer and prompts thought about the people and places touched by those items.
Kay Greenlees