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Beverly Ayling-Smith MSDC

Stitched & Constructed Textiles

About Beverly
Beverly Ayling-Smith is a textile artist and researcher. Her studio practice examines the emotional states of mourning and melancholia and focuses on the emotions of grief, loss and absence using techniques such as the mending and staining of cloth. Beverly completed a practice-based PhD in 2016 and holds an MA with Distinction in Contemporary Crafts (Textiles) from the University for the Creative Arts. She is a Member of the Society of Designer Craftsmen and exhibits with Prism.
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Beverly studied at the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham obtaining an MA in Contemporary Crafts (Textiles). She then developed her research, completing a practice-based PhD from the University of Brighton in 2016.

Beverly’s work uses materials traditionally used for burial, such as lead, linen and sheets to explore how she can imbue cloth with emotion and make a connection with the viewer, to allow reflection and consideration of the losses we have all experienced.

Using the most appropriate cloth for her work is central to Beverly’s practice, whether linen, lead, cotton sheets or pillowcases. Beverly’s current work uses bedsheets which have been torn, stained and mended to evoke feelings of grief and loss as well as repair and resolution.

Resumé Back to top

Education

2016 PhD University for the Creative Arts (Farnham) and University of Brighton. ‘The space between mourning and melancholia: the use of cloth in contemporary art practice to materialise the work of mourning’.

2010 MA Contemporary Craft (Textiles) Distinction. University for the Creative Arts (Farnham).

2006 BA (Hons) Embroidered Textiles (First Class) Opus School of Textile Arts – Middlesex University.

Publications

2018 The Bedsheet: From Linen Cupboard to Art Gallery’ TEXTILE, DOI:10.1080/14759756.2018.1432142

2013 ‘Cloth, Memory and Mourning’ in The Strangled Cry: The Communication and Experience of Trauma. Edited by Aparajita Nanda and Peter Bray. Interdisciplinary Press. pp235-255.

Articles

2016 June Hill ‘The Language of Grief’ Embroidery Magazine, November

Collections

‘remembering, repeating and working through’ Whitworth Art Gallery Collection.

Works in the Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Collection, California, USA.

Solo show

2016 The Language of Grief: cloth as a metaphor for loss James Hockey Gallery, UCA Farnham, UK

2013 GalleryGallery, Kyoto, Japan.

Recent exhibitions

2018

Scythia Exhibition of Textile Art, Ivano-Frankivs’k, Ukraine.

Transient Prism Exhibition, Arches 402, Hoxton, UK.

2017

Ajavahe. Time Difference 7th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial. Tallinn, Estonia.

Craft Continuum, Menier Gallery, London

2016

Art_Textiles .The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester

2015

Warp and Weft, Chain Stitch and Pearl Textiles in the Ahmanson Collection, Irvine California, USA.

Trauma, Grief, Loss: The Art of Bereavement, Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, UK.

Society of Designer Craftsmen exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, UK.

Lines of Communication, Prism Exhibition, Arches 402, Hoxton, London, UK.

2014

The Red and the Black, World of Threads Exhibition, Oakville, Ontario, Canada

Coded: Decoded Prism Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, UK

PassionArt Trail, John Rylands Library, Manchester, UK.

2013

Time: Place: Space, Research Student Exhibition, UCA, Farnham, UK

Liminal Prism Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, UK.

The Fabric of Memory. The Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, Euston, London, UK.

2012

Cloth and Memory Gallery 2, Salts Mill, Saltaire Yorkshire, UK.

Process, Perception, Phenomena Research Student Conference Exhibition, Herbert Read Gallery, UCA, Canterbury, UK.

Hidden Places: Hidden Spaces Prism Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, UK.

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