Welcome to Episode 16 of Pattern Portraits!

Lauren Godfrey chats with artist Zadie Xa, about alchemy and conjuring through pattern, oddness over evenness and Korean Folklore.

Zadie Xa is an artist working across painting, sculpture and performance with recent presentations at Thaddeus Ropac in Paris, Hauser and Wirth in LA and The Whitechapel Gallery in London. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Zadie explores notions of homeland and diaspora through the metaphor of water and interspecies communication. Zadie has an MA in painting from The Royal College of Art and a BFA from The Emily Carr Institute of Design in Vancouver.

Her work often takes the form of textile constructions resembling garments or kimonos, heavily worked with quilting, appliqué and complex structural elements featuring recurring motifs such as the conch shell, the Yin Yang symbol, knives and kimchi. Performances have featured huge Orca whales and costumes sewn from bleach dyed denim in aqueous patterns of undulating water.

I am totally entranced by Zadie’s work and the way that pattern weaves its way into every element whether it’s a vast patchwork shelter, housing delicately rendered paintings or a gown hanging from the ceiling, poised with a pair of platform shoes resembling cabbages.

Zadie has chosen a vibrant patchwork of patterns including a Korean Bojagi wrapping (date unknown), Sonia Delaunay’s ‘Simultaneous Dress’ from 1913, a pattern of her own - Kimchi Rites and Kitchen Rituals, 2022, a Christopher Kane flower stamped dress from Spring/Summer 2012 and a Mori Yuzan wave drawing circa 1903.

You can see all of Zadie’s patterns and more on instagram @patternportraitspodcast

‘Magic Motif’ - The PATTERN PORTRAIT print artwork to accompany Zadie’s interview and featuring the patterns we discuss is available to buy now at www.laurengodfrey.co.uk

Image of Zadie Xa by Benedict Johnson

References:

Gee’s Bend Quilt Makers

Legacy Russell

The New Bend Exhibition at Hauser and Wirth

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Welcome to Episode 15 of Pattern Portraits!

Lauren Godfrey chats with artist Navine G Dossos, about wearing painting, pattern as lexicon and the connections between geometry and philosophy.

This episode was recorded on the occasion of her solo exhibition ‘Riviera’ at Devonshire Collective’s VOLT gallery in Eastbourne.

Navine is an artist living between London and Aegina in Greece working predominantly in painting and increasingly in the public realm. She has a keen interest in pattern and through her work explores geometric abstraction, merging traditions coming from Islamic art with the algorithmic nature of the interconnected world we live in.

Navine studied History of Art at Cambridge University, Arabic at Kuwait University, Islamic Art at the Prince’s School of Traditional Art in London, and holds an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art & Design.

Her exhibition at Volt is a commission led by Towner Eastbourne in collaboration with Devonshire Collective and presents a new collaboratively designed patterned textile featuring a language of symbols developed from the surrounding area of Eastbourne and the people that live there. The textile is available for free for visitors to take a 2 metre length with which to make a garment or furnishing, thus disseminating the pattern across the town, country and potentially the globe. A truly public artwork it also manifests as a series of awnings on nearby shopfronts, peppering the town with pattern.

Navine has chosen a beautiful palette of patterns including a Raoul Dufy textile from 1920, an Islamic Geometric pattern, A Japanese wave pattern, the Photoshop transparency grid and two patterns by the Bloomsbury Group; ’Pamela’ by Vanessa Bell / Duncan Grant and ‘West Wind’ by Duncan Grant.

You can see all of Navine’s patterns and more on instagram @patternportraitspodcast

‘Monumental Intimacy’ - The PATTERN PORTRAIT print artwork to accompany Navine’s interview and featuring the patterns we discuss is available to buy now at www.laurengodfrey.co.uk

References:

Agnes Martin

Charleston House

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Welcome to Episode 14 of Pattern Portraits!

Lauren Godfrey chats with Romy St Clair, one half of the coolest florists in London, SAGE flowers, about collaboration, the similarities between flowers and clubbing and being a recovering minimalist.

Together with Iona Mathieson, Romy has grown a phenomenal creative business, making playful bouquets and incredible floral installations. Storming onto the scene only a few years ago with a tiny budget and a few stems in a carpark in Peckham they have since collaborated with brands including Gucci, Fenty, Frieze and Nike to name but a handful. They set up an initiative called FutureFlowers which offers funded placements to diversify and decolonise floristry and they have written a book called The Art of Starting in which they share their secrets to success.

Not only are the SAGE girls amazing businesswomen and florists but also impeccable dressers and bring pattern and fun into all they do! Romy has chosen a beautiful selection of sentimental patterns including a fiery Louisa Ballou dress worn for their book launch, a monogrammed Ralph Lauren hoodie belonging to her little boy, a Chunni she wore for her engagement party, an inherited sari and the happiest flower bag for Louis Vuitton by Takashi Murakami.

You can see all of Romy’s patterns and more now on instagram @patternportraitspodcast

‘Flowers This Way' - The PATTERN PORTRAIT print artwork to accompany Romy’s interview and featuring the patterns we discuss is available to buy now at www.laurengodfrey.co.uk

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Welcome to Episode 13 of Pattern Portraits!

Lauren Godfrey chats with artist Madeleine Pledge about stripes as borders, patterns as graphs and Virginia Woolf’s concept of frock consciousness.

Madeleine Pledge is an artist working sculpturally, employing a myriad of processes including knitting, sewing, casting, ceramics and printmaking. Her work stretches and contorts, leaves a physical impression, can be worn or perhaps has been. It wraps itself around and loops through, balancing and poising. Her work revels in material elements of fashion and from the history of design, reworking and reinterpreting them as a means to understand systems of production, power and authorship.

Madeleine’s take on pattern is a really broad and conceptual one, the patterns she has chosen are closely linked with her work and include childhood polkadot dungarees, a stretch knit stripe from a photograph by artist Sylvie Fleury, a pair of op art and binary code inspired balaclavas made by Madeleine after the artist Rosemarie Trockel, zig zag stripes by Missoni, and a trio of striped knitted garments by JW Anderson.

You can see all of Madeleine’s patterns and more on instagram @patternportraitspodcast

‘Maximum Baggage’ - The PATTERN PORTRAIT print artwork to accompany Madeleine’s interview and featuring the patterns we discuss is available to buy now at www.laurengodfrey.co.uk

References:

Christine Keeler chair https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O76201/the-keeler-chair-chair-unknown/

Jade Monserrat https://www.bosseandbaum.com/artists/jade-montserrat/

Ann Anlin Cheng - Second Skin, Josephine Baker and the Modern Surface https://global.oup.com/academic/product/second-skin-9780197748381?cc=gb&lang=en&

Charlie Porter - Bring No Clothes https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/453043/bring-no-clothes-by-porter-charlie/9781802061147

Bridget Riley - original article from 1965 - https://www.artnews.com/art-news/retrospective/bridget-riley-perception-is-the-medium-1965-12638/

Alice Channer https://alicechanner.com/

Weaponised Glamour at Case Study Project Space - https://www.madeleinepledge.com/weaponized-glamour

Superstructure (public image), 2023 at Eastbourne ALIVE https://www.madeleinepledge.com/superstructure-public-image

Stretch, Flatlands Projects https://www.madeleinepledge.com/stretch

Isa Genzken’s jacket https://www.madeleinepledge.com/the-weather-garden

Sarah Shepherd - knitter of the balaclavas https://www.sarahshepherd.com/

Madeleine’s Pictures for Palestine print https://www.picturesforpalestine.com/photographs/madeleine-pledge

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Welcome to Episode 11 of Pattern Portraits!

Lauren Godfrey chats with artist and filmmaker Michelle Williams Gamaker about costume as a nonverbal communicator in film, pattern stopping her in her tracks and the double echo of intergenerational clothes swapping.

Michelle is an artist known for her ambitious films that enact fictional revenge, placing marginalised voices at the centre of the narrative. Her epic film work ‘Theives’ was presented at South London Gallery in 2023, Dundee Contemporary Arts and Bluecoat in Liverpool in 2024. Michelle’s work responds to films watched during childhood, unpacked and seen anew over time, which raise important conversations about race, representation, identity and agency. Michelle’s work has won many awards including jointly winning the Jarman Award in 2020.

Pattern and colour are intrinsic in her world from costumes and sets to the clothes Michelle wears herself. A pair of her striped boots have even been immortalised in the work of another artist, Madeline Pledge who I am also interviewing this season!

Michelle has chosen some very special patterns, a polkadot and houndstooth from C&A passed down from her mum, a Kantha quilt kimono and Shalwar kameez adapted for wearing at her exhibition opening, a satin dress thrifted in Amsterdam and my personal favourite, an epic Paisley crossed with tiger print shirt by Pencaldi and B!

You can see all of Michelle's patterns and more on instagram @patternportraitspodcast

The PATTERN PORTRAIT print artwork to accompany Michelle’s interview and featuring the patterns we discuss is available to buy now at www.laurengodfrey.co.uk

https://www.instagram.com/m.williams.gamaker/

References:

Thief of Baghdad 1940 - produced by Alexander Korda and directed by Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger and Tim Whelan, with additional contributions by William Cameron Menzies and Korda brothers Vincent and Zoltán.

The Thief of Bagdad 1924 - directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Douglas Fairbanks.

Anna May Wong

Sabu

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Welcome to Season 2 of PATTERN PORTRAITS! In this first episode of the new season, Lauren Godfrey chats with curator, writer and broadcaster, Amber Butchart about the power of souvenirs, the compulsory nature of leopard print and the joys of London Transport seating fabric!

You’ll probably know Amber from her very special TV series A Stitch In Time in which Amber explores the lives of historical figures through the clothes they wore, or perhaps for her regular appearances as the fashion historian on The Great British Sewing Bee! She is unmissable with impeccable dress sense and an iconic red bob, usually topped off with a colourful turban.

Amber has chosen patterns from many different sources, from 1960’s Anaglypta wallpaper, an Uzbek Ikat tunic bought in Istanbul, a leopard print carpet, a bespoke leopard print featuring her own silhouette by her partner Rob Flowers, a bedsheet from the Chinese Cultural revolution and a London Transport moquette from the London Country Buses.

Amber hosts her own podcast ‘Cloth Cultures’ for The British Textile Biennial which is a beautiful exploration of movement, migration and making through cloth. Her stunning exhibition ‘The Fabric of Democracy’ was at The Fashion and Textiles Museum in London earlier in 2024, exploring printed propaganda textiles over more than two centuries. It was a truly remarkable show really driving home the idea of pattern and fabric as codes and communicators - if ever we were in doubt about the power of pattern, this show dispelled it!

You can see all of Amber’s patterns and more on instagram @patternportraitspodcast

The PATTERN PORTRAIT print artwork to accompany Amber’s interview and featuring the patterns we discuss is available to buy now at www.laurengodfrey.co.uk

References / Links:

Bar américain at Zedel, London

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood director of the Textile Research Centre in Leiden

Enid Marx- mentioned in relation to the London Transport Moquettes

Lauren Elkin article about textiles

Josef frank - Italian dinner

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Season 2 of Pattern Portraits is coming soon!

I’m Lauren Godfrey and each week I chat with fellow pattern lovers about a few of the patterns special to them.

Each guest picks a handful of their favourite patterns and these open up conversation about the their wider world of work and life and lead us down avenues of tartan and passageways of paisley with a little diversion in a floral forest!

Because it’s such a visual feast in an audible format, I’ve made prints to accompany each episode, a kind of undulating landscape of pattern on pattern, capturing the guests personality through the patterns they choose. You can buy the prints through my website, www.laurengodfrey.co.uk and this is a great way to support the podcast too if you’d like to hear more!

You can also follow @patternportraitspodcast on instagram to see the patterns we discuss and clips from the interviews.

This season is full of juicy nuggets of wisdom from some amazing pattern addicts, I hope you enjoy joining me on an odyssey of pattern as this season unfurls!

Season 2 of Pattern Portraits, coming soon!

With clips from interviews with Amber Butchart and Zoé Whitley, music by Alex Brenchley

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