Home : Images : Archive
Return to list of press releases

Press Release - Thursday, July 26, 2007

Future Exhibitions 2007-2008

Hove Museum & Art Gallery
19 New Church Road, Hove BN3 4AB
01273 290200
www.virtualmuseum.info
Open: Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm; Sunday 2-5pm
Closed: Mondays (including public holidays); Good Friday, 23-26 December, 31 December, 1 January

Free admission to all exhibitions

Indigo: A Blue to Dye For
29 September 2007 to 6 January 2008
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery and Hove Museum & Art Gallery

Believed by many cultures to be charged with unique talismanic properties, indigo - the world’s oldest and most distinctive dyestuff - is the dye behind denim, one of the most ubiquitous of fabrics. Indigo: A Blue To Dye For is a major exhibition of art, craft, fashion, and design featuring historical and contemporary indigo-dyed artefacts from around the world. The complete exhibition extends across both Brighton and Hove Museums.

The exhibition spans indigo’s rich history from burial cloths in Roman Egypt to 16th-18th century domestic textiles, and clothing dyed in India and imported to Europe by the East India Company.

In addition to historical textiles, Indigo: A Blue To Dye For features the work of many contemporary craftmakers from Britain, Japan, India, Bangladesh and West Africa, illustrating the survival – and adaptation to contemporary fashions – of indigo. Some of the works have been specially commissioned for the show.

Major installations at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery include
* the history of indigo throughout the world
* alchemy and the transformation of indigo from plant to dyestuff
* the wide ranging uses of indigo by different cultures
* indigo in contemporary fashion
* Blue Art, with a spectacular textile installation by leading Japanese contemporary artist Hiroyuki Shindo

Highlights of the show at Hove Museum & Art Gallery include
* indigo in British craft
* Myth, Medicine and Ritual - beliefs in the transformational properties of indigo
* workwear, including a denim prison uniform and a Japanese firefighter's outfit

At Hove Museum, separate displays of work by Jenny Balfour-Paul and Lucy Goffin, leading textile artists who specialise in contemporary uses of indigo, complement the main exhibition.

Indigo: A Blue To Dye For is A Whitworth Art Gallery Touring Exhibition
Indigo: A Blue to Dye For is presented by Brighton & Hove Museums. It is sponsored by The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Arts Council England, The Manchester Airports Group, The Japan Foundation, The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, The University of Manchester Whitworth Art Gallery, The James Green Centre for World Art and Brighton & Hove City Council.

East Weaves West: Basketry from Japan and Britain
18 January to 20 April 2008
Exhibition galleries, Hove Museum & Art Gallery

East Weaves West provides an exciting insight into recent developments in the art of basketry on opposite sides of the world. The evolution of basketry skills in both Japan and the UK has followed different routes from different origins, leading to diverse, stimulating work employing a wide range of forms, materials and techniques. Small, domestic sculptures sit alongside large scale pieces intended for galleries and gardens. Functional items, some still in daily use, are juxtaposed with the highest artistic expressions of the medium, allowing for fascinating cultural comparisons and contrasts.

This is the first such exhibition on this scale. Over 50 artist basketmakers showing 70 pieces, selected equally from each country, will be showing an exciting and broad ranging body of new work, including installations, wall pieces, free standing sculptures and smaller, plinth mounted, 3D forms of natural and man-made materials.

Mary Butcher, curator of 'Contemporary International Basketmaking' for the Crafts Council, has spent a month in Japan meeting both vernacular and contemporary makers, as a result of which a rich, diverse, beautiful exhibition has been selected. The exhibition has been co–curated by Mary Butcher and Laura Hamilton, Curator, Collins Gallery, Glasgow and its content was selected by the above in collaboration with Esme Hofman, Nationaal Vlechtmuseum, Holland.

First Sight: selling showcase

First Sight is a showcase of work by local craft makers in the entrance of Hove Museum & Art Gallery. All pieces are for sale.

Matt Smith

7 August to 30 September 2007
A collection of functional and sculptural ceramics inspired by the randomness of the everyday.

Lucy Goffin and Jenny Balfour-Paul

2 October to 25 November 2007
Indigo-dyed textiles for sale, to compliment the major exhibition Indigo: A Blue to Dye For.

Christmas Crafts

27 November 2007 to 20 January 2008
A selection of original jewellery, ceramics, textiles and glassware made by local craft makers to fill your Christmas stockings and brighten up the New Year.

Ends
Issued 26 July 2007
Dates are correct at the time of issue, but may be subject to change.
Images available nearer the date of the event.

Hove Museum & Art Gallery
19 New Church Road, Hove BN3 4AB
01273 290200
www.virtualmuseum.info
Open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 2-5pm
Closed Monday (including public holidays); Good Friday, 23-26 December, 31 December, 1 January
Free admission
Fully accessible
Café, shop

Press enquiries:
Martin Ellis, Marketing and Audience Development 01273 292817 museums.marketing@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Telephone (01273) 290900 Fax (01273) 292871
Royal Pavilion, Libraries and Museums, Brighton & Hove City Council BN1 1EE