Becky Brewis: Fabrications

By Jen McLaren, 22.09.2023

Image courtesy of Dundee Heritage Trust

Becky Brewis uses jute as the main basis of her body of work in exhibition Fabrications, which is situated perfectly within Verdant Works Museum – a restored 19th century jute mill that tells the story of Dundee’s links to the jute trade.

 

Brewis often takes a childhood photo as a starting point for her large, mixed-media jute embroideries, which explore the outer edges of memory. Originally from London, and now based in Dundee, Brewis reveals in her artist’s statement that the house she grew up in had jute wallpaper, meaning the textile was imbued with memories from an early age.

 

Brewis won the Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation Bursary in 2021. This award of £1,500 was intended to assist recent art graduates with overcoming the challenges experienced during the pandemic. The Foundation recognised Brewis for her innovative textile work displayed at the 2021 Edinburgh College of Art Graduate Show. 

 

Commenting upon the bursary at the time, James Knox, Director of the Fleming Collection, said: "A brilliant draughtswoman, textile artist and filmmaker, Dundee-based Brewis stands out as an original and highly trained talent.”

 

Inside Verdant Works are the huge machines which took the jute through its various processes. Meanwhile, round the corner from the exhibition room is a display about the children who lived in Juteopolis (as the city was then known) with video footage showing them playing in the streets and school yards, providing a contrast to the themes explored in Brewis’s work.

 

Five pieces hang in the small room, resembling wall tapestries, but more delicate. The movements you make as you pass by cause them to sway.

 

In ‘Legs’ (jute, 2019) a pair of legs dangle, suspended, weightless and thread-bare. Who they belong to is unclear, but there is a suggestion of knee-high socks so possibly a child. There’s a delicacy and vulnerability, most especially because the textile has been stripped back to its essence, weakening the structure and making it more transparent.

 

‘Good Hair, Good Skin, Good Teeth’ (mixed media on jute, 2019) presents a human body deconstructed into its constituent parts. Embroidered hands hold an eye. A nursing watch is pinned on, offering a presence that could be seen as reassuring, only the familiar symbol of the red cross is turned on its side to become an X. A stitched red outline creates a shape resembling a face; hooks dangle ominously, awaiting utensils or perhaps even flesh. Fingernails and teeth are spaced out neatly along the jute. We are, indeed, regarding our bodily make-up – only it has unravelled.

 

‘Little Red Riding Hood’ (mixed media on jute, 2022) notably takes inspiration from a mix of childhood memories and fairy tales. A face peers out from behind staircase railings and seems to be regarding something in terror. A red cloak is hooked upon a peg and three foxes appear, all incomplete in some way; either outlines or unfinished. It suggests a hazy memory, perhaps of the tale itself in a child’s mind. A kirby grip holds a tuft of hair in place, introducing something tangible to the fantasy.

 

These vignettes evoke moments or memories personal to the artist. And though the stories are suspended between each of their four corners, they still have the power to coax out recollections belonging to the observer.

 

Fabrications runs at Verdant Works Museum, Dundee, until 26^th November

The exhibition is free with museum admission or for annual pass holders.