Beneath our feet

Leah Higgins

OPENING FOR ARTWALK

Thursday, September 4 from 5:00-8:00

In Beneath Our Feet, UK-based textile artist Leah Higgins takes inspiration from two industries that have touched her life and shaped her environment. In large, abstract textile wall hangings, featuring screen printing, quilting and dye techniques, she celebrates those former cotton mills that continue to erode and decay, and those that have found a new purpose, as studio spaces for artists and musicians. In an installation of textile panels Leah references specific collieries in Manchester; exploring an industry that mostly exists today in our memories.

Higgins’ art has developed from a life-long love of working with textile and stitch. The tactile nature of cloth envelopes her in feelings of wellbeing and brings with it memories of people long gone. She can trace her path from making clothes to making bed quilts, from buying printed fabrics to dyeing and printing her own. From following others to developing her own ideas. From craft to art.

Many of her abstract quilts are inspired by the city Higgins lives in (Manchester, UK) and by the surrounding region’s strong industrial heritage. She is particularly struck by how man-made buildings and structures shape the urban landscape. Her ‘Ruins’ quilts are inspired by old industrial buildings, some repurposed and some abandoned. ‘Agecroft’ is part of a series on coal mining, an industry that has been eradicated from the landscape but remains in the collective memory of those old enough to remember slag heaps and winding wheels.

Her process starts with color and mark. She works directly onto fabric often utilizing breakdown, or deconstructed, printing to create a cohesive collection of fabrics characterized by dense marks and complex, often neutral colors. She cuts her fabrics and reconstructs them into quilts which are then layered and quilted. In some pieces she uses stitch, fused applique or additional layers of print to reference specific sources of inspiration and to create harmony between individual quilts within a series.

Leah Higgins will instruct two Re•treat workshops: Simply Screenprinting – September 25 – 29 and Luscious Layers – October 2 – 6.