Textiles – Vanessa Rolf
Over two days, arts students at St Vincents College looked at maps of Gosport from over the decades, including relief maps, tidal information and coastal defences. Creating their own maps in paper format first and then working together to create three textile panels, representing the past, present and future.
Each panel is graphic in nature and the narratives within the ‘map’ are open to the viewer’s interpretation. They are not a conventional map for navigation but a visual response to the themes of Gosport and its role in coastal defence and how that relates to those living and studying there. The artists involved have shared elements of their own story, memories of the past, locations relevant to their present and hopes for the future.
Using heat transfer inks, allows for painted and patterned papers to be cut into shapes and transferred to the fabric.
Vanessa Rolf is an artist who works with textiles and stitch; exploring maps, journeys, memorial, inheritance and collections. She references found imagery and text to create layered narratives. Archival methods of documenting and labelling are explored in the work as a method of claiming, rationalising and filtering experiences. Vanessa studied at the Royal College of Art but grew up in and around the Gosport area.
Vanessa is an artist, freelance educator, visiting lecturer and engagement consultant. She founded and directed ReachOutRCA, the Royal College of Art’s engagement programme from 2005-15. Vanessa led National Saturday Art Club at Winchester School of Art and was Engagement Curator at John Hansard Gallery, Southampton. She continues to work alongside communities in creative exchanges and teaches BA and MA level at Chelsea College of Art and Design (UAL), Winchester School of Art and University of the Creative Arts, Farnham.
Vanessa is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art and a member of the 62 Group of Textile Artists.