Jennifer Sturrock
Born in Edinburgh, Jennifer is a multidisciplinary artist, designer and educator who integrates textiles, fashion and writing. Studying for her undergraduate degrees at Chelsea College of Art and London College of Fashion, she then gained a Masters Degree in Theology & the Arts, from Kings College London, majoring in the ‘Idea of Beauty'. Formerly Senior Producer of Residencies at the V&A museum, she has curated various projects and delivered talks and training around creative process at a range of cultural institutions including the RSA, Courtauld Institute and UAL. She continues to develop her artistic practice, as well as to collaborate with arts organisations and universities in various forms of public engagement in the UK, as well as internationally. Her recent publication, Pulling Threads (April, 2020) which combines twenty poems and twenty textile artworks 'unravelling the unknown', has been acquired by the National Poetry Library’s permanent collection at the Southbank Centre in London.
Overarching praxis statement:
My work seeks to unravel and weave ideas around creative process through multiple interdisciplinary pathways; w
aves (textiles), words (poetry) and matter (public engagement). In various expressions I seek to make connections and patterns through fabric and fibres in order to facilitate a sense of liminal space. Amidst tensions of uncertainty and the unknown, I want to inspire questions amongst the challenges our world is negotiating today, and indeed prompt collaborative methods for exploring evolving solutions. Using the metaphor of threads throughout my work as an artist and as a designer, I have continued to explore and investigate how that is embedded deep into my work as a facilitator too. Industries and educational hubs beyond the creative sector are increasingly requiring more integrated approaches, reflective spaces that host artistic expression, and thought which illuminate experimental problem solving and necessary disruption to traditional ways of working. I am curious to explore how creative process can become an integral element within wider spheres, indeed an essential part of our everyday lives.
Current art and/or research interest:
Along with my Scottish heritage, I come from a long line of people who cultivate the land to support communities connected by fibre and thread. On my mother’s side there are generations of sheep farmers from Caithness, in the north of Scotland. On my father’s side, the Scottish name Sturrock translated as Stan Rocc or ‘stoney rocks’, so-called due to the location of their community livelihood, dwellers on high rocks – and apparently also sheep rustlers.
As an artist and knitwear designer, I have been creating and working with fibres for over a decade. Through the slow craft and making process of changing sheep wool from raw fleece fibre into a garment, the WEAVING LIGHT project seeks to illuminate and explore the making process and deeper pattern of our woven selves through the spinning and knitting of threads as metaphor for ongoing creative process. Textile expressions and poetry document each stage, and through film, photography and writing draw awareness to the beauty of regenerative craft - and one that grounds deeply to the land and its resources. For more information on this project contact jen@blancc.space and for work in progress visit @jensturrock on instagram.
More about the artist:
www.jennifersturrock.com