Press Release

Cathy MacTaggart uses traditional hand-craft techniques to create textile art collections that draw attention to the female condition.  Hand and machine stitch, and hand knitting, are skills usually held by women and are techniques strongly associated with the domestic environment.  She reflects on the manual nature of kitchen tasks by hand drawing the objects that were handled by her Mother within this environment.

While drawing the kitchen implements, she developed an interest in the feelings created by the repetitive use of various utensils and a symbolic link with an associated domestic textile.   "My Mother's Work  - Unseen" is a collection of jam jar covers which are used to represent the work of the jam making season, which is unseen once the product has been consumed.   "My Mother's Work - Unending" is a series of roller towels that demonstrate the dawning realisation that food preparation may become more skilled and complicated over the years, but is ultimately a continuous loop of work.  "My Mother's Work - Unfinished" is a group of incomplete complex knitted pieces.  They symbolise how hand made craft that is incomplete, is often unrecognised for the considerable skills involved.  "My Mother's Work - Cyclical" uses round tea towels to symbolise the repeated nature of preparing food.  "My Mother's Work - Supportive" uses a coat lining as an allegory.  A lined garment is more comfortable to wear and has a longer life, giving a better experience of the item of clothing, similar to how the quality of work done by many people's Mothers, supports and improves the experience of life.

Cathy MacTaggart aims to articulate the experiences of her Mother, on behalf of many women.  She aims for viewers of this work to be able to identify with the subject matter, and for it to inspire a wry smile of recognition and the thought "My Mum did that too!"