Nerissa Cargill Thompson, 2020
To continue our Interview Series, offering an insight into artists’ practices whilst under lockdown restrictions, we interviewed Nerissa Cargill Thompson to see how she has adapted and if these unprecedented times have inspired further development of her practice.
1- Who are you? Introduce yourself
My name is Nerissa Cargill Thompson. I’m a designer, maker and facilitator with over 20 years of experience of professional and community practice. I originally trained in Theatre Design but it was through my community arts practice, that my interest in textiles grew and a desire to develop personal artwork rather than just designing for others. I decided to go back to uni part time and enrolled on the MA Textile Practice course at Manchester School of Art graduating in 2018 so I consider myself an emerging artist even though I’m pushing 50.
2. What is your artistic practice?
With a background in prop making particularly masks and sculptural costumes, I knew I wanted to use these skills to manipulate textiles through stitch, moulding and casting to create three-dimensional work. I am fascinated by how things change appearance & shape over time, not just eroding or decaying but also new layers of growth, giving interesting juxtapositions of structure and colour. I use photography, just on my phone, to capture both natural and urban textures that inspire my textiles and moments that suggest a story to me. I document and respond to the changes I see in the world around me and make work using old clothes and scrap materials for both economic & ecological sustainability.
[Image: Buy Better]
Most of my sculptural work highlights the issue of plastic pollution and climate change, influenced by the litter I encountered on the school run each day, knowing that this litter was entering our waterways and ending up in our seas and on our beaches; found washed up on my trips back to my Mum’s on the coast of Fife. I want people to consider the packaging that we use and discard on a daily basis; objects such as drinks bottles that are so lightweight and seem so insignificant that we barely notice them but will take centuries to decompose. I cast them in cement to make them heavy and solid, to convey the weight of the issue and the permanence of these disposables. The incorporation of detailed embroidery, inspired by nature, touches upon the way our waste becomes subsumed into the natural world around us. I have always been drawn to manmade objects on the beach covered in seaweed and barnacles or derelict properties overgrown with moss and ivy.
[Image: Before/After –Subway]
How I Make my Work:
My sculptures are formed using a combination of embellishing and embroidery to create coastal inspired textures, blending a variety of recycled fabrics to create subtle variations in tone. I stitch the resulting textiles inside waste plastic that I use to cast true to life
pieces with cement, giving a distinct contrast between the manmade structure of the packaging and the soft natural textures. This year I have started on a new series of work called No Man is an Island combining textile maps and landscapes in domestic plastic packaging as the embossed lines and grids remind me of those on maps. The title and work are about responsibility as even uninhabited islands are polluted by plastic and some islands are disappearing, suffering from the knock-on effect of climate change and rising sea levels.
[Image: No Man is an Island –Mapping the Issue]
3- How has this been impacted by lockdown restrictions and the pandemic?
When lockdown hit I was in the middle of my largest piece to date, a full world map over 22 panels for this year’s Prism Contemporary textiles exhibition at the Art Pavilion at Mile End.
Unable to go to the sculpture studio, I ended up having to cast it in my back garden nearly losing Alaska over the fence from a gust of wind and much complaining from my back. Unsurprisingly the exhibition was cancelled but went online so was glad I had preserved and was able to still share the work. The piece went on to be shortlisted for the Vliesilene Fine Art Textile award, another exhibition forced online but still hope to exhibit it “In Real Life” as both are hoping to go ahead in 2021.
My first piece responding to the pandemic followed this series. It showed a world map with hints of red showing the spread of the disease. I felt it fitted the No Man is an Island theme as it was becoming increasingly important that we all had a responsibility
of behaviour to help stop infection and that nobody could
escape the impact of this pandemic on our lives.
[Image: No Man is an Island –Global Issue]
As my work often responds to the litter found in my community, I observed a change in this on my government mandated lockdown health walks. I noticed fewer plastic bottles and take away cartons and started to find disposable gloves. This connected with my worry over plastic pollution but also, like I mentioned before, that notion of story. Being gloves, they are and shapes so suggest human presence no longer there. Some looked as thought they were still inhabited with a hand, others had fallen to form gestures (not always polite) maybe suggesting a feeling or reaction to the pandemic, some formed shapes like someone practicing shadow puppets and then there were combinations as thought hey were communicating at a time when touch and communication were so restricted and some combined with other little to suggest a situation. So I stated a collection of photographs as a way of documenting the pandemic.
[Image: Glove Story photos]
Initially I was keen to make three dimensional hands cast in gloves with textiles using my usual techniques inspired by macro photos of the coronavirus. Luckily I have this small studio in my garden so the textiles weren’t an issue in between the new task of home schooling but I usually do my casting in the sculpture room at Neo Studios in Bolton so that was an issue as too intricate for garden casting so I put these to one side and started to make some gloves out of leftover ripstop fabric; manipulating them using stitch and heat.
After the initial heatwave of lockdown (remember that) the rain came and I was seeing gloves washed along the gutters and caught in the drains reinforcing for me the notions of loss and waste. Loss of lives, particularly being PPE, of key workers.
I thought back to the embossed patterns of the food trays I used for the No Man is an Island series. They reminded me of drains and ants and cages so started to cast my manipulated fabric gloves in these. Entombed in the cement, it reinforced the permanence f loss and the long-lasting effect of this pandemic. As time went on, my collection of photos increased, death tolls rose and my series of panels grew, forming a Memorial. It also felt right to respond to the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests as part of this series.
[Image: Glove Story – Memorial]
For only a short time in Greater Manchester, lockdown lifted, and I was able to spend some time in the reopened studios in Bolton casting my three-dimensional gloves. Once done, I played with placing them on their own and in combinations both on plain backgrounds and outside like the gloves I’d found. I named them “The Three Stooges” after the way key workers have been treated.
[Image: Glove Story – Three Stooges]
3- What are you currently working on? (virtual exhibitions, creative movements, collaborative projects, maintaining production of work).
Unfortunately on holiday I broke my ankle getting out of basket swing so just as I got rid of my kids back to school and would have more time to make, I was sofa bound. I used an embellishing machine for my textiles and cast in Bolton so that’s all been on hold. I’ve been catching up with things like this, updating my website, applying for future projects and exhibitions and recording video workshops. A couple of new pieces from the ongoing Beached collection that I cast in that brief hiatus were selected for the Warrington Open which is currently on display until the end of December2020. As mentioned before the textile award shortlist exhibition is online and I have been part of local arts festival which went virtual using Mozilla Hubs and Artsteps software in which I presented an exhibition (with help from the wonderful tech team at Chorlton Arts Festival) It was a collection ofmypieces cast in local litter entitled “The Litter You Leave: Future Fossils”. I started back running some onsite art sessions with the disability group I am associate artist with and had been doing video workshops for over lockdown but unfortunately new restrictions have meant ending up back online but trying to keep them live now rather than recorded.
[Image: Artsteps exhibition]
4-What is next? -How, if at all, has this pandemic inspired further progression?
I could’ve stopped and churned out masks through this. I did make some for friends and family, from recycled fabrics of course, but I think it confirmed my resolve as an artist rather than a crafter which is a wobbling fence in the world of textiles. It was important to me to both respond to the crisis through my art but also to continue with both the ‘Beached’ and ‘No Man is an Island’ series of works as it felt like people and governments had been starting to take steps for change to help the climate crisis but the pandemic has caused a massive leap backwards towards single use plastics. Headlines like “More Masks in the Sea than Jellyfish” reiterate this. I have a couple of pieces combining the textures from ‘Beached’ with some 3D mask sculptures ready to cast when my foot is better. As I cast actual litter, the size of each cast is determined by this so to create larger works, it becomes about multiples which also reinforces the build upof plastic waste. I have been working onthe textiles for a piece called “Ten Green Bottles”that I am eager to cast.I am also looking forward to working as Lead Artist on the Green Loop project exploring plastic beach waste on the Fylde coast. This was due to be next year but has now been postponed until 2022. But basically, Iintend to continue to make work that makes people consider their responsibility for our environment. At an exhibition last year, someone compared my bottles that were on show to biblical samplers;beautiful to have around but a moral reminder of our sins.I was happy with that.
[Image: Message in a Bottle]
5- Where can we find you? Extra projects you are working on, social media, website, exhibitions you will be in, etc.
I am @nerissact on most platforms but I mainly use Instagram as it’s brief and visual. It gives an insight into what I’m working on, exhibitions and key photos I’m using for inspiration as it saves me trawling through my own photos too. I also find it the best place to discover and interact with other artists so please join me there. If you would like to see more of my work, I also have a portfolio website www.nerissact.co.uk where you can find the full range of my work and information on the workshops and community projects I run.If you are still here, thanks for watching and there should be some links to where you can see my work both online and in real life on the Dispensary Gallery website. Thanks for the opportunity to share my work and process with you. Goodbye.
[Image: links/credits]
Current Exhibitions:
Two pieces selected for Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival Open at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery. Invite only PV 10th September 11th Sept -20th December https://wcaf.culturewarrington.org/whats-on/wcaf20-open-exhibition/
Challenged to create mini versions of my workover lockdown for The Doll’s House Gallery in Levenshulme. Thurs -Sun 6am -10pm from 22nd August https://m.facebook.com/thedollshouseartgallery/
I have been shortlisted for the Vlieseline Fine Art Textiles Award 2020. Unfortunately the exhibition at Alexandra Palace has been moved online but will be fully featured in the Festival of Quilts publication and hope for a live exhibition in 2021.
Online exhibition now live: https://www.theknittingandstitchingshow.com/london/the-vlieseline-fine-art-textiles-award-final-selection/
The delayed transfer of the Staging Places exhibition from V&A is now set to open at National Centre for Craft & Design in Sleaford.19th Sept 2020 -10th Jan 2021
Currently open Thurs -Sun 10 -4
https://nccd.org.uk/exhibitions/staging-places
“So Why Not Do It Again” group online exhibition curated by Cultivate gallery.
Chorlton Arts virtual Festival 3rd&4th October 2020
