5 April – 29 June 2025

There is a particularity to Jessie Chorley’s work. Cloth, stitch, embroidery, thread, colour, imagery: every element of her making is considered. Each piece of fabric, strand of embroidery floss and sewing notion is chosen for its inherent qualities and the memories and feelings it evokes. Passed on from hand to hand or sought out from antique markets and second-hand shops, her materials are precious scraps of life that, pieced together, form the ground of her highly personal embroidered stories and abstract landscapes.

Motifs echo across these embroideries, painstakingly stitched in a deliberately restricted vocabulary of traditional techniques: straight stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, seed stitch, and couching. The imagery is familiar, the things of everyday and of known places: home, a lamp with an illuminated shade, a table, chairs, trees, birds, horse, plants, stems, flowers, a crescent moon, the river, a boat.

Significant remembered moments and traces of places, travel, the events of life, snippets of conversations, daily rituals: this is the subject matter of Jessie’s artworks. Their narrative is fragmented, stories are not linear, they are a careful balance, built upon over time. References go back and forth, from childhood in rural North Wales to her current home in metropolitan London. Her, large and personal collection of objects, fabrics, threads, words, fragments of found plants, dried flowers all collected over the artists life and constant food and inspiration for Jessie. All convey a sense of engrossment in stitching that which is before one. Such work requires the mindful attention and commitment of maker and viewer. It asks us to slow down, to look closely and to give our time.

Curated by June Hill

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5 Ebrill – 29 Mehefin 2025

Mae rhyw hynodrwydd yn perthyn i waith Jessie Chorley. Defnydd, pwyth, brodwaith, edafedd, lliw, delweddaeth: caiff pob elfen o’i gwaith creu eu hystyried. Caiff pob darn o ffabrig, cainc o fflos brodio ac ategolyn gwnïo ei ddewis am ei nodweddion cynhenid a’r atgofion a’r teimladau mae’n dwyn i gof. Mae ei defnyddiau, sydd wedi’u hestyn o law i law, eu ceisio mewn marchnadoedd hen bethau a siopau ail-law, yn lloffion gwerthfawr o fywyd sydd, o’u rhoi at ei gilydd, yn ffurfio sylfaen ei straeon brodwaith a’i thirluniau haniaethol personol iawn.

Mae motiffau’n atseinio ar draws y brodweithiau hyn sydd wedi’u pwytho’n ofalus mewn geirfa fwriadol gyfyng o dechnegau traddodiadol: pwyth hir, pwyth rhedeg, pwyth satin, pwyth hedyn, a chowtsio. Mae’r ddelweddaeth yn gyfarwydd, petheuach bob dydd ac o fannau cyffredin: y cartref, lamp gyda chysgod wedi’i oleuo, bwrdd, cadeiriau, coed, adar, ceffyl, planhigion, coesynnau, blodau, lleuad gorniog, yr afon, a chwch.

Enydau arwyddocaol sy’n dod i gof ac olion lleoedd, teithiau, digwyddiadau bywyd, pytiau o sgyrsiau, defodau dyddiol: dyma destunau gweithiau celf Jessie. Mae eu naratif yn ddarniog, nid yw straeon yn llinol, maen nhw’n gydbwysiad gofalus, wedi’u hadeiladu dros amser. Mae’r cyfeiriadau’n mynd yn ôl ac ymlaen, o blentyndod yng nghefn gwlad gogledd Cymru i’w chartref presennol yn Llundain ddinesig. Mae ei chasgliad mawr personol o wrthrychau, ffabrigau, edafedd, geiriau, dernynnau o blanhigion wedi’u canfod, blodau sych, oll wedi’u hel yn ystod bywyd yr artist yn borthiant ac yn ysbrydoliaeth gyson i Jessie. Maen nhw i gyd y cyfleu synnwyr o lwyrfeddiant mewn pwytho’r hyn sydd o’ch blaen. Mae gofyn sylw gofalus ac ymrwymiad y gwneuthurwr a’r gwyliwr ar y fath hon o waith. Mae’n gofyn i ni bwyllo, i graffu ac i roi o’n hamser.

Curadwyd gan June Hill

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