Sheffield trip......Timorous Beasties

Timorous Beasties – A bird in the Hand
Millennium Gallery Sheffield

Yesterday I travelled to Sheffield to visit the new Timorous Beasties exhibition at the Millennium Gallery. I have never been to Sheffield before and as soon as I stepped outside of the train station I was amazed by the fabulous water feature that stretched for about 50 metres. The way that the water was flowing down the metal surface was remarkable; it almost looked as if the water was turning to ice because of the reflections.

A Bird in the hand
Timorous Beasties was founded in 1990 by Alistair McCauley and Paul Simmons. For this exhibition they had studied natural history prints from John Ruskin’s collection in Sheffield, and they had re-upholstered Victorian furniture. There were lamps, chairs and mattresses all decorated with these famous prints. The major theme for this collection of prints was the representation of the natural world portrayed as a battle for survival. This idea questions our thoughts about beauty in nature. The work featured small unattractive animals like insects, rodents and reptiles. The idea was that it is not normal to see these creatures on soft furnishings. Timorous Beasties are famous for their rebellious style, their previous work has included combining contemporary social comment with historic imagery and traditional textile designs. Their work is inspired by William Morris’s giant prints; also they follow the ideas of the Arts and Crafts movement and believe the best thing for design is to invest a lot of time and labour. This is why most of their commercial ranges are created by hand using traditional techniques.

Patterns & Process
For this collection they studied natural history illustrations from the John Ruskin collection, then re drew them in black ink, scanned them into the computer and introduced colour and repeat pattern. They used digital print technology to transfer them onto textiles. With new digital techniques being used more and more, this allows for more detail and colours to be used compared to more traditional techniques.