My name is Zoe Gibson, and my background is not in art or textiles, but in architecture. It is this journey through design studio-based learning that I have furthered - what once was a hobby - craft, in textiles and landscapes.
I completed both my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in architecture at Ulster University, before pursuing my PhD in architectural education. My Masters thesis design project won the RSUA Silver Medal for my representation of Rathlin Island through narrative and drawing, which served as a catalyst for my landscape art.
Throughout an architect's education, we are encouraged to explore landscapes and ecologies through drawing and abstraction. This exploration - paired with my interest in textiles and embroidery- is how I have developed a unique perspective for documenting Irish and British landscapes. Courses of architecture fundamentally provide students with a platform to challenge conventional or traditional methods of thinking, and personally I have substituted the pencil for a needle.
My inspiration is developed through the textures that are often found and overlooked in the landscapes. Using aerial imagery, the landscapes are mapped onto a linen canvas - drawn by hand using a contrasting colour of thread on my needle - to map out the boundaries of what I wish to reveal through the grid-like weave of the linen fibres. It is this weaving of thread to linen which generates the patterns and self-taught stitches, representing landscapes which we are familiar with, yet often only interact with on a surface level.
The linen landscapes, along with my embroidery techniques are self-taught. My mother is often found with a knitting project or a tapestry, and my father always had a writing utensil in his hand. Creativity and craft has been a part of my daily ritual for as long as I can remember.
The landscapes are chosen based on my memories. Cataloguing and sharing 'place' has become something which is important to me as I progress through my education. When showing my embroideries to others in exhibitions, or intimately with peers, it is intriguing to see which textures they notice, and which questions they ask about the landscapes which they are viewing from a new perspective.
Abstracting the known is common for artists. Encouraging the viewer to 'look again'.
I hope that this narrative inspires you to recall memories of place, and look again to the embroideries within the wider context of artistic interpretation.