15 May - 10 July 2021, Riverside Gallery

Stitch-by-stitch story-weaving inspired by lunar folklore

Ruth Broadway is a multi-media artist based in Bristol. Ruth’s work captures things at the cusp of change – a moon, a moth, the tide. Using the physical acts of stitching, binding, folding, printing, collecting & preserving to tether the ephemeral, this exhibition displays how the ritual of daily noticing, recording and making can foster mindfulness and appreciation of the quiet transformation happening around us.

Pictured above: By The Light of the Moon

384 nights | 13 moons

 “Each night I have stitched an individual ‘moon’ within the circle of an embroidery hoop. I have stitched in sync with each night’s moon phase through 384 nights and seen 13 moons, including a blue moon.

I have stitched with the Crow moon, Pink moon, Milk moon, Rose moon, Thunder moon, Barley moon, Harvest moon, Blue moon, Oak moon, Cold moon, Wolf moon and Hunger moon.

Started just before the UK Covid-19 lockdown, this was intended to be a personal month-long stitch ritual, but developed into a project that has lasted a year. This quiet, meditative and mindful night-time ritual soon became essential in tethering me; the one constant in my day during the turbulent times of the past year.

In the folk-craft tradition I have worked with the materials that I had to hand (particularly as we were somewhat restricted by the lockdown) and I dyed pocket handkerchief squares and circles of cotton fabric with Indian ink. “

[Pocket handkerchiefs, Indian ink, thread, the moon]

Listen to a podcast featuring Ruth Broadway recorded by Clayhill Arts in early 2021. Episode notes:

In this episode we are joined by Ruth Broadway, an artist and print-maker based in Bristol.
The commercial side of her practice is Ruby and the Paper Parade and through time on an MA she has been exploring a more conceptual and multidisciplinary approach in her work. She explains how Instagram has been a useful documentary tool for her practice, as well as a meeting space for creative conversation online, and how taking part in Press Play, a course which was part way through as the pandemic hit, has helped form a new network and challenge her working practice.

Ruth has been creating a new body of work recently for her upcoming solo show Moonlit [….]We talk about how the work has been inspired by the buried moon folk story and how the pandemic has forced this show to move and pause. Talking openly about the optimism found in the quiet act of ritual daily making, Ruth shares how important making is for her mental health.

We also talk about her experiences in getting involved with the Artist Support Pledge and how she feels this has opened up the culture and dialogue for artists to talk about making a living from their work. Believing strongly that making time for artwork is part of the whole person not just the job, this couldn't be more fitting to the work that she is creating at the moment.