Since Sarah Trowsdale’s Work in Progress exhibition in February, she has brought together established and new textile techniques to construct a series of quilted pieces.
Her work begins with cultural and historical research which explores little known women through history who have been physically engaged in warfare, rebellions or acts of aggression against oppressors. Using this information, she creates dynamic art quilts using techniques such as appliqué and quilting on repurposed material to represent them.
During her research, Sarah came across a quote from a soldier’s letter that described how the women he was fighting “Never cease to throw rocks, and do injury to the troops”. This stood out to her because when used in a different context these words could be a message, as relevant now as it was then. The struggle for equality still goes on, but never cease to stand up for your rights, continue to throw your ‘rocks’ until you are heard.
About Sarah
After graduating from a MA in Textile Design at Chelsea College of Art with a scholarship from Sheepdrove Trust. Sarah was awarded the DYCP grant from Arts Council England to continue developing her art practice and research.
Sarah favours textiles as her medium as they make her research easily accessible to a wide variety of people and have less formal artistic connotations. Her work uses the dichotomy of comforting quilts, made with traditional craft skills that are labelled as feminine, to represent women who were associated with violence.
