North: Fashioning Identity. Exhibition of a series of Cumbrian portraits and landscapes as part of the group exhibitions, 'North: Identity, Photography, Fashion' ( Open Eye, Liverpool) - 'North: Fashioning Identity' (Somerset House, London).
- Submitting institution
-
Arts University Bournemouth, the
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- Ellison_32060 North
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- Open Eye, Liverpool and Somerset House, London
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- January
- Year of first exhibition
- 2017
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- Yes
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- In 2018 Ellison was invited by curators Lou Stoppard and Adam Murray to exhibit a series of his Cumbrian portraits and landscapes in 'North: Fashioning Identity' shown at Open Eye, Liverpool, and Somerset House, London.
The practice-based research aims to explore the cultural significance of embroidered costumes in the regional sport of wrestling within Cumberland and Westmorland. Ellison research examined the art critic John Ruskin’s connection to the arts and crafts movement in the Lake District investigating how his patronage of craft influenced the style of embroidery seen on wrestling costumes i.e. white cotton vests, velvet underpants and white cotton long johns.
The research uncovered that the costumes commonly embodied an idyllic picturesque iconography, the embroideries designed and then hand sewn by family members to depict the initials of the wrestler decorated with flora and fauna. Through his photographic enquiry it is clear that these designs are both an illustration of the native landscape of Cumbria and the English Lake District and a celebration of rural life.
Ellison’s documentary photographs chart wrestling contests in the Cumbrian landscape and trace the performance of tradition. Through cross-disciplined analysis of domestic embroidery and archival photography, Ellison examines the ‘skilled’ labour of the arts and crafts aesthetic in the Lake District against the ‘unskilled’ vernacular embroidery on wrestlers’ costumes.
The accompanying book, 'Ted Hod, Embroidered Wrestlers of the North', rigorously reframes knowledge of the arts and crafts movement by drawing on archived photographs to chart the evolution of amateur makers of embroidery. Ellison’s photographs were also reproduced in the exhibition catalogue at Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool, and for Somerset House, London.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -
