The Textile Study Group

Jane McKeating

Dancing Backwards A group of 9 printed and hand stitched cloths which are displayed together flat in a graduated sequence. The story: Dancing backwards she revisits fleeting moments…… unmaking time. She feels the present collapse, dissolving into marks and surfaces, colours and figures as she works. Leaving just glimpses of reality. She reconstructs these grainy images to arrive at multiple new versions, playfully dancing upside down and back to front to get a different view. Slowly and gently, she stitches and prints and cuts and rips and presses. As she quietly makes and unmakes, she touches time. She rebuilds and composes some cloths which bring the past alive, and then she softly wafts those times away. Dancing Backwards Detail 1
Dancing Backwards Detail 2
Jane McKeating, Dancing Backwards Detail 7
Jane McKeating, Dancing Backwards Detail 6
Jane McKeating, Dancing Backwards Detail 8
Jane McKeating, Polyester United Detail 3. A group of 15 football shirt fronts printed and hand stitched on polyester offcuts. The story: Grandma isn’t into football, but she watches the shirts becoming a universal costume. In the playground, down the pub and on the tele, shirts on men, women, children, babies. Are you blue, red, yellow or another fancy mixture? The fabric stretches well over any belly and drip dries quickly, though she misses giving things a good press as she rather likes ironing. She reflects that over time our cloths have disappeared as they rot back to the earth, but this lot won’t. Its fossilised seam will capture a crazy species wrapped in multicoloured polyester.
Jane McKeating, Polyester United Detail 1
Jane McKeating, Polyester United Detail 2
Jane McKeating, Oily Rag. Hand stitch and print onto a cleaning up rag. The Story: After a productive, if messy day Frank decided to be printed onto the cleaning up cloth as it was a shame to put it in the bin. Then he danced and danced to his old LPs.
Jane McKeating, Jim on his Friday Walk. Detail 1. Print and stitch on scrap cotton bedding. The story: On Tuesday, Jim walked to buy his newspaper. He glanced at the headlines, then looked up and studied the sky as he retraced his steps. He allowed the weather to scramble then unscramble his thoughts. He felt calmer by the time he was home, and he put the kettle on.
Jane McKeating, Jim on his Tuesday Walk. Print and stitch on scrap cotton bedding. The story: On Tuesday, Jim walked to buy his newspaper. He glanced at the headlines, then looked up and studied the sky as he retraced his steps. He allowed the weather to scramble then unscramble his thoughts. He felt calmer by the time he was home, and he put the kettle on.
Jane McKeating, A Little Scrap of Synesthesia. Hand stitch and print onto scrap cotton bedding. The story: Frank was listening to the News. He decided to focus on the colours of the words – much less worrying that way.

Artist Statement

My playful textile surfaces explore universal themes, telling visual stories born from masses of drawings capturing inconsequential moments. Drawing is central to my practice; I love developing sequences while moving between drawing, print, and stitch to create cloths at various scales. I enjoy quirky humour and peculiar personalities, exploring them across real and imaginary worlds.

Using print processes to translate my drawings onto cloth, I add and subtract marks and patterns through hand stitching. Print enables endless repetition, allowing drawn characters to appear in different guises and scales over time.

Fascinated by the haptic qualities of stitch and cloth, I explore the relationship between touch and vision. My synaesthesia shapes my use of colour, resulting in richly tactile, multidirectional surfaces. Over a 45-year career—including 30 years teaching at Manchester School of Art—my practice has evolved from large-scale machine embroidery to multi-element works crafted from my Stockport and Salford studios.

Available For

  • Courses
  • Talks
  • Commissions
  • Writing articles
  • Exhibitions
  • Collaborations

Location

Stockport

Member Since

2020

Email

jane.mckeating@outlook.com

Links

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