SS Sept 19 Web

Sussex Arts Collective
COLLECTIONS SIX
The Cuckmere Room Crypt Gallery,
Church Street, Seaford. Saturday 7th
September until Thursday 3rd October
2019. Open 10am – 4pm Mon –Sat (Closed
Wednesdays), Sundays 12 – 3pm. FREE
ENTRY to exhibition and medieval undercroft
COLLECTIONS returns! After a short break away
during Artwave, the Sussex Arts Collective return to
resume their year-long residency in the Cuckmere
Room at the Crypt Gallery.
Over the next four months the Collective will be
presenting even more diverse and eclectic artwork
from their membership; those you may be familiar
with as well from their ever-increasing circle of
innovative contemporary artists and crafts people
to delight and tempt you.
Alongside the exhibitions they intend to stage at least
two special events: one for Armistice and a second to
launch a new publication by local poet Peter Martin.
COLLECTIONS SIX SPOTLIGHT
Franziska Wieser
This month we spotlight
long-time resident of Seaford
and weaver, Franziska Wieser.
Franziska has for many
years been a prominent and
eminent member of both the
Sussex Arts Collective and the
East Sussex Guild of Weavers,
Spinners and Dyers. As a solo
artist she exhibited at the
first ever show at the Crypt
Gallery in 1993 with a silk wall hanging.
Who hasn’t coveted one of her exquisite scarves and
throws, all of which are hand spun, dyed and woven
on one her hand-built looms? If you haven’t I suggest
you take another look at her work in COLLECTIONS
SIX and see how meticulously well they are made. She
employs a wide palette of colours to suit all seasons
and for both male and female wearers.
In her youth embroidery,
sewing and other crafts
where considered as
good upbringing. Being
born in Austria after
the war life was strict
and often girls married
young. However, she wanted to see
the world. She lived in Switzerland, Rome, Paris and
London where she met her husband; in 1982 she
married and lived first in Bedford and moved to
Seaford in 1985.
A wedding present inspired
her to make patchworks
and quilts. Very quickly she
created her own designs
fulfilling commissions
and showing in galleries.
In 1987 she became a
member of the Sussex Guild and
started a three-year diploma course in textiles at
Brighton University. Following a two-year Fine Art
Foundation course and graduating on a BA course at
Winchester and Brighton in 1998, she started to work
with industrial waste plastic: she plaited, wove, melted it
and painted on it. In 2004 she was invited to show at
the Marine Festival displaying finished work on Seaford
beach. Not topical at the time, she was highlighting
the dangers of plastic in our ecosystem by building
large-scale sculptures featuring a plate of mussels, a sea
mobile and at the Crypt Gallery she built a huge fish
made to look as if it was swimming in the Undercroft
all made from waste plastics.
It was only in 2003 that she learned to spin and weave.
She was inspired by Austrian knitted cable designs.
Now she loves to work with many different textured
yarns and colour combinations. She shows regularly
with the Sussex Arts Collective and gets great pleasure
when people enjoy and wear her scarves.
For more information about the COLLECTIONS
exhibitions or Franziska Wieser, contact info@
sussexartscollective.com, join the Crypt Gallery
Seaford mailing list or visit www.sussexartscollective.
com or www.thecryptgallery.com
Photos from top: Gold shawl; Red check weave; Franziska Wieser.
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