Helena Handbasket

By Tivoli

Arachne is spending the weekend with me in Bedford, arranged mostly so that we could go to Cambridge together to see the exhibition of Palestinian embroidery currently on display there.
Until we arrived neither of us knew anything at all about Kettles Yard. What a fascinating house that turns out to be. So despite the fact that our journey was to see the embroidery, my main blip is from the permanent collection in the house.

Main – found object – burnt willow wood. It happens to resemble an elderly woman, oddly, and not trying to be especially mean here, but it does bear an uncanny resemblance to my late mother-in-law.

Extra – found pebbles arranged carefully on a table top. This is not the only example of carefully-arranged pebbles in the house. In fact there is a small stone tablet engraved with the message that this house is the Louvre of pebbles, and I wouldn't want to refute that.

Helen Ede's bedroom window was decorated with white spots which reminded me so strongly of the Cornelia Parker exhibition we visited together in October last year that I joked to Arachne “but I bet these marks aren't made using chalk from the white cliffs of Dover” Only to learn farther round the house that Helen Ede's bedroom window had been decorated in 2018 by Cornelia Parker herself using chalk from the white cliffs of Dover.

Extra – this really is Palestinian embroidery from the current exhibition. The exhibition will be showing later in the year at the Whitworth in Manchester.
A really worthwhile day out – highly recommended if you have the opportunity.

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