Shelly Goldsmith

In her practice, Shelly Goldsmith locates herself on the cusp of craft and fine art. “Process and making are very important to me, my work is underpinned by ideas or concepts. The concepts dictate the choice of materials, methods and context in which the work is explored and produced… I use range of materials that are appropriate to the ideas I am exploring at that time and so this necessitates a wide engagement with different approaches and methods.”

Much of Goldsmith’s work examines the notion that memory and experience are woven into the fabric of cloth. The pieces that she is exhibiting at Margate Rocks 08 reference the physical and emotional relationships we have with our environments, and each other, and how this impacts on garments. Using reclaimed children’s clothing she applies photographic imagery as surface pattern upon the fabric, which references traumatic ecological and environmental disasters, and suggests that memory can never truly be erased from the clothing we wear.

Shelly Goldsmith has exhibited at major galleries and museums in Britain, Europe, the USA and Japan. In 2002 she was awarded the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize for textiles. Her work is in many notable public collections including: the V&A, Nottingham Castle Museum, the Crafts Council and the Whitworth Museum.

_{Images: No Escape, 2000 (top) and Forming Vapour, 2005 (right) © Shelly Goldsmith}