By describing themselves as ‘textile artists’, Broadhead, Barber and Danville challenge the conventional boundaries separating ‘art’ and ‘craft’. Traditionally crafts have been regarded as purely functional or decorative objects, whereas in the fine arts it has been the creative and emotional impulse, the idea behind the work, that is of primary importance.

The exhibits in Tempered were made using established and new craft techniques and they were all conceived with artistic ambition in mind: to elicit emotional response; to convey and to conjure mood.

Claire Barber’s untitled piece consisted of white turkey feathers suspended on nylon thread above the North Balcony and photographic transparencies on the central floor area. Victoria Danville’s piece Unreasonable Behaviour presented printed PVC pillows filled with feathers and cotton scrim, on the West end of Fabrica’s floor. Caroline Broadhead’s work Invisible Dress was formed of garments made from silk, nylon and iron wire, suspended from the East Balcony.

This exhibition, subtitled Captured Moments – Textual Fragments – Human Presence, represented both a response to Fabrica’s space and an ongoing dialogue about the place of textiles in the world of art and in our own lives.