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Susie Vickery FSDC

Stitched & Constructed Textiles

About Susie
Susie’s career centres on embroidery and textiles. She worked for over twenty years as a costumier for theatre in Australia and the UK. In the last twenty years she has built expertise in development work and fine art embroidery. She works as a craft consultant with income generation projects in India, Nepal, Tibet, Myanmar and Turkey, responding to local materials and artistic traditions. She has also facilitated community art workshops in Mumbai, Nepal and with indigenous Mexicans and Australians. Her work is the inspiration for her embroidered animations, automata and textile pieces.
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Susie Vickery responds to her concerns about global and local inequalities through embroidery and craft. Her artwork is inspired by the history of garment production and the exploitation of workers in the sweated trades, and her work with projects that aim to build capacity for livelihoods and community engagement with women’s health through craft and art.

Susie examines the subaltern status of textile work through embroidered animations, automata and puppets that speak to the history and current practice of tailoring, globalisation through outsourcing, and sweatshops. She uses traditional tailoring and embroidery techniques and combines them with digital technology to create embroidered animations.

Her current concerns are the degradation of the environment and the increasing movement of refugees because of political events and climate change. To look at these issues she combines her love of embroidery, puppets, animation and period costume in the creation of puppets, automata and animations

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Awards

  • Christine Risley Award, Goldsmiths, University of London
  • Selvedge Magazine Illustrate Your Point Winner
  • Selvedge Magazine Drawing Award
  • Work

Work

  • 2018 Mentor Artist - Wellcome Trust Public Engagement with Science Art Project with Janakpur Women’s Development Centre, Nepal
  • Mentor Artist - Place Names, a Community Arts Network project with Langford Aboriginal Association, Perth, Western Australia
  • Handicraft Consultant - Turkey
  • Workshop Leader - Swansea Festival of Stitch
  • Workshop Leader - Hacking Jacket, Western Australia
  • 2017 Handicraft Consultant - Turkey, Nepal
  • Workshop Leader - Hacking Jacket, Western Australia
  • 2016 Mentor Artist - Wellcome Trust Public Engagement with Science Art Project with Huichol Indigenous community, Mexico
  • 2015 Handicraft Consultant - Tibet, Myanmar, Turkey, Nepal
  • Lecturer in 19th Century tailoring - Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
  • Handicraft consultant - Dharavi Biennale, Mumbai
  • Workshop Leader as part of the Festival of Huguenots - Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings - London, UK
  • 2014 Handicraft Consultant – Tibet, Myanmar
  • Lecturer in 19th Century tailoring - Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
  • Handicraft consultant - Dharavi Biennale, Mumbai
  • Mentor Artist - Dharavi Biennale, Mumbai. Mapping the Hurt: Embroidery Workshop in response to gender based violence in Mumbai
  • 2013 Handicraft Consultant – Lhasa -Tibet, Shangri La - Yunnan Province and Yangon - Myanmar
  • Mentor Artist - Dharavi Biennale, Mumbai. Provoke/Protect: Embroidery Workshop in response to rape in India
  • Lecturer in 19th Century tailoring - Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
  • Costume design in collaboration with Mumbai-based performance artist Jyoti Dogra
  • 2011-12 Mentor Artist - Dekha/Andekha art project. Mumbai, India. Art workshops with women in slums.
  • Lecturer in 19th Century tailoring - Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne
  • 2007-2012 Handicraft consultant –Tibet, China and Gaza
  • 2006-2014 Freelance Textile Artist and Costumier, Mumbai and London
  • 1998-2005 Technical advisor to women’s handicraft projects, Nepal
  • 1997 Trainer in traditional Tibetan tailoring, Tibetan refugee camp, Kathmandu
  • 1992-1996 Freelance Costumier, London and Australia
  • 1991-1992 Head tailor for Disney production Beauty and the Beast, Melbourne
  • 1990 Costumier – Freelance and the Royal National Theatre, London
  • 1989 Costumier – English National Opera, London
  • 1984-1988 Costumier – Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford Upon Avon and London
  • 1980-1983 Costumier – West Australian Theatre Company, Perth

Publications

  • 2015 Mapping the Hurt: Typical Girls magazine
  • 2012 Textiles: The Art of Mankind, Mary Schoeser, Thames and Hudson
  • The Maker and the Made, Marg: A Magazine of the Arts, Mumbai
  • 2010 Crafts Magazine
  • www.craftscouncil.org.uk/craft... Not the Job, It’s the Cabbage, Selvedge Magazine January/February edition, pages 19-25
  • Dress of the Exile: Tibetan, Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion

Exhibitions

  • 2018 Machines and Makers - Carnarvon, Katanning - Western Australia
  • 2016 Machines and Makers - Mundaring Arts Centre - Western Australia
  • The Wit of Stitch - Ruthin Craft Centre - Wales, UK
  • Mapping the Hurt - The Festival of Quilts - Birmingham, UK
  • 2014-15 The Needle’s Eye: Contemporary Embroidery -The National Museum, Oslo, Norway
  • The Needle’s Eye: Contemporary Embroidery - Kode Art Museum, Bergen, Norway
  • 2015 Lines of Communication - Hoxton Arches, London
  • 2014 Coded/Decoded - Mall Galleries, London
  • 2013 Designer Crafts at the Mall - The Society of Designer Craftsmen, Mall Galleries, London
  • Provoke/Protect - Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, Mumbai Liminal - Mall Galleries, London
  • 2012 Prism: Textile Inspired Art - Whitstable Museum & Gallery, Whitstable
  • Everyday Encounters - William Morris Museum & Gallery, London
  • Hidden Places, Hidden Spaces - Mall Galleries, London
  • Everydeities: Divinity, Mundanity and Embroidery -Bombay Electric, Mumbai
  • At Home: Conversations about Art and Health - Dharavi, Mumbai
  • 2011 East-West Art Award Competition - La Galleria, Pall Mall, London
  • Magnet Open Art Project - Concord, New Hampshire, USA
  • Rarities: An Exhibition of Miniature Magnetic Art - Hastings and St Leonards
  • Up Close, In Detail - Mall Galleries, London
  • Designer Crafts at the Mall - The Society of Designer Craftsmen, Mall Galleries, London
  • 2010 Puppets and Automata - One Church St Gallery, Great Missenden
  • Inspired by Morris - William Morris Gallery, London
  • Doing the Needful - Knitting & Stitching shows, London, Dublin, Harrogate
  • Doing the Needful - The Constance Howard Research Centre, Goldsmiths, University of London
  • Evoke: Evolve: Expand - Mall Galleries, London
  • On the Melancholy of Tailors - The Constance Howard Research Centre, Goldsmiths, University of London
  • Designer Crafts at the Mall - The Society of Designer Craftsmen, Mall Galleries, London
  • 2009 Threads through Life - Hotspot, Galleriet på Designtorget, Vasagatan 20, Västerås, Sweden
  • Graduate showcase - Knitting & Stitching show, London
  • Headline: A Sense of the Moment - Mall Galleries, London
  • Prism - Mall Galleries, London
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