NEW BOOK FROM KOLAJ
Standard Processes in Dressmaking
The book will debut at the Borders Textile Towerhouse in Hawick, Scotland on 13 April 2024 in conjunction with the exhibition, “Graphic Paper Exhibition-The Art of Cutting Things Out with Alison Kurke.”
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Kolaj Institute and Kasini House are pleased to announce the publication of Standard Processes in Dressmaking, a collaged altered book by nine members of the International Collage Community.
Using E. Lucy Towers’s iconic, 1948 instruction manual as a point of departure, artists added fragments to the pages of the book as a means of exploring womanhood and fashion. The result is a collaborative meditation on how the clothes we wear shape identity, meaning, and place in the world.
The project was initiated by Alison Kurke in 2020.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Standard Processes in Dressmaking is a collaged altered book by nine members of the International Collage Community. Using E. Lucy Towers’s iconic, 1948 instruction manual as a point of departure, artists added fragments to the pages of the book as a means of exploring womanhood and fashion. The result is a collaborative meditation on how the clothes we wear shape identity, meaning, and place in the world. Project lead, Alison Kurke, notes, “We subverted her dressmaking strictures, narrow rules of structure and construction.” The altered book is an example of how the International Collage Community operates through project-based collaboration that transcends borders. Participating artists include Carol White (Ireland), Dorothée Mesander (Greece), Lisa Sheets (United States), Katie Blake (United States), Sabine Remy (Germany), Susanna Lakner (Germany), Anna Cromwell (United Kingdom), Eve Cromwell (United Kingdom), and Alison Kurke (United Kingdom & Italy).
E. Lucy Towers was a First Class Diplomée of the Training College of Domestic Subjects, London, in Dressmaking, Needlework, Tailoring and Millinery. She was formerly Lecturer in Dressmaking and Needlework at The Polytechnic, Regent Street, and at Chelsea Polytechnic, London. Her first book, Standard Processes in Dressmaking, was originally published by the University of London Press in 1948 and had its eleventh printing in 1976. Her sequel, Techniques of Dressmaking and Soft Tailoring, was published by the University of London Press in 1968. With Helen Lewis, she published Basic Pattern-Cutting Folders for Dressmaking, Nos. 1-6, in 1954, also by the University of London Press.
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ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
7.5″x6.7″; vintage paper, book pages, notebook pages. Courtesy of the artist.
Graphic Paper: The Art of Cutting Things Out with Alison Kurke
at the Borders Textile Towerhouse in Hawick, Scotland
13 April-15 June 2024
Opening Reception & Book Launch: Saturday, 13 April 2024, 1-3PM
Alison Kurke is an American collage artist who has been living in the Scottish Borders since the summer of 2023. The collages in this exhibition are an overview of a studio practice that has evolved over the past twenty years. She makes collage not to document her life, not to illustrate the issues of the day, not to partake in universal human truths, and not purely out of nostalgia for design and imagery of the past, but because she likes cutting things out, combining them and pasting them down in pleasing arrangements. Retirement has its advantages and focused play is vastly underrated. She has amassed a gigantic trove of old paper, commercial paper, ephemera and oddities that she is truly determined to sort out one day when she has a few spare minutes. She enjoys collaborative collage projects and takes part in a number of groups and circles internationally. She has exhibited in various places and taken part in various gatherings and is eager to find and connect with collage and paper fans locally. She loves paper, collage, bookmaking, gelli printing, and monoprinting as well as red wine, type, architecture, public swimming pools, taking classes, polysyllabic words, people-watching, telling others what is really on her mind, chocolate, and swearing.
INFORMATION
Borders Textile Towerhouse
1 Tower Knowe
Hawick TD9 9EN Scotland
+44 1450 377615
Hours:
April-October: Monday-Saturday, 10AM-4PM
November-March: Monday, Wednesday-Saturday, 10AM-4PM