Gele.
Stanley Picker Gallery has curated a series of new art installations for Town House by leading contemporary practitioners associated with Kingston University.
Gele fuses together traditional craft techniques from both Nigeria and Britain. The piece takes its name from West African head head-dresses which are sculpted with pleats and folds by hand. Nigeria and the UK are aligned through their shared history and same sense of ‘local’ time. The wall-based textiles are designed to hang like clock faces at two moments in times.
The embroidery motifs for Gele were directly inspired by the architecture of Town House, designed by RIBA 2020 Gold Medal winners Grafton Architects, and the hand stitching references a garment held in the Benenden School of Costume Collection & Fashion Archive at Kingston School of Art.