13 January 2024 – 17 March 2024

Presenting a new body of work at Ruthin Craft Centre, Nigel Hurlstone explores an enduring fascination with ‘dressing-up,’ a conjuring trick that allows a glimpse of other lives, from cricketer to curate. In a collection of self-portraits that figure the artist dressed in an array of outfits, Hurlstone reveals the potential of garments to oscillate between their practical, gendered, and fashionable territories into uncharted psychological, emotional and cinematic terrains; we see one man, but many people.

By presenting over 30 life size works in the gallery space, Hurlstone has manufactured something akin to an ominous tableau depicting a cast of characters that at some point, we have all encountered. They are familiar, yet also curiously historicised images. They allude to characters who might be long gone but persist in our cultural or familial memory.

Printed onto cloth and then embroidered, each portrait is disrupted through a veiling of thread; characters appear and disappear as if following the slight of a magician’s hand. A myriad of threads play on the surface of the cloth making for subtle shifts in rhythm, colour, and light. Hurlstone’s insistent dissection of the images through vertical tonal stripes also takes us to the photographer’s dark room where exposure tests move across the image until the light is just right. This work is made out of the same exacting precision and alludes as much to the magic of silver, bromide and paper as it does to needle and thread.

Whilst the portraits maybe mute, Hurlstone has written a series of short stories that have been adapted and produced by Steve Doherty of Giddy Goat Productions. Autobiographical in nature, they show people we might know, sometimes the people that we are, negotiating the end of life or chronic illness in predictable but also astonishing ways. These stories possess a similar quality to the portraiture, in that they initially disarm us through the deployment of familiar tropes and a cast of characters that make us laugh, cry or bristle with unease.

Nigel Hurlstone (b. 1970) studied for a BA in Embroidered Textiles at the former Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) where he was awarded a first-class honours degree. He then gained a MA (distinction) in textiles and was one of the first graduates to be an awarded a Ph.D with practice by MMU in 2000. He has worked simultaneously as a practitioner, writer and senior lecturer for the past thirty years and in 2014, established a studio in Ffynnongroyw, North Wales, where he now lives and works.

Curated by Gregory Parsons
Nigel Hurlstone’s portraiture photography: Dewi Tannatt Lloyd
Exhibition photography: Dewi Tannatt Lloyd

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Yn y corff newydd o waith a gyflwynir yng Nghanolfan Grefft Rhuthun mae Nigel Hurlstone yn archwilio ei ddiddordeb parhaus gyda ‘gwisgo i fyny’, tric consurio sy’n caniatáu i ni gael cipolwg ar fywydau eraill, o’r cricedwr i’r curad. Mewn casgliad o hunanbortreadau gyda’r artist wedi’i wisgo mewn dillad amrywiol mae Hurlstone yn datgelu potensial gwisgoedd i bendilio rhwng eu peuoedd ymarferol, ffasiynol a rhyweddedig a thiriogaethau seicolegol, emosiynol a sinematig; yma gwelwn un dyn ond llawer o bobl.

Drwy gyflwyno dros 30 o weithiau maint llawn yng ngofod yr oriel mae Hurlstone wedi cynhyrchu rhywbeth tebyg i tableau bygythiol sy’n portreadu cast o gymeriadau rydym oll wedi cyfarfod â nhw ar ryw bwynt. Maen nhw’n gyfarwydd ond eto’n rhyfedd ddigon yn ddelweddau wedi’u haneseiddio. Maen nhw’n cyfeirio at gymeriadau a allai fod wedi hen ddiflannu ond sy’n parhau yn ein cof diwylliannol neu deuluol.

Terfir ar bob portread, sydd wedi’i brintio ar ddefnydd ac yna’i frodio, gan orchudd o edafedd; mae cymeriadau’n ymddangos ac yna’n diflannu fel petai nhw’n dilyn ystum llaw dewin. Mae myrdd o edeifion yn chwarae ar wyneb y defnydd gan achosi newidiadau cynnil mewn rhythm, lliw, a golau. Mae dyrannu penderfynol Hurlstone o’r delweddau drwy streipiau tonyddol fertigol hefyd yn ein tywys i ystafell dywyll y ffotograffydd lle mae profion dinoethi’n symud ar draws y ddelwedd nes bod yn golau yn iawn. Gwneir y gwaith hwn gyda’r un cywirdeb manwl ac mae’n cyfeirio at hudoliaeth arian, bromid a phapur cymaint ag y mae at edau a nodwydd.

Tra bod y portreadau efallai’n fud, mae Hurlstone wedi ysgrifennu cyfres o straeon byrion sydd wedi’u haddasu a’u cynhyrchu gan Steve Doherty o Giddy Goat Productions. A hwythau o natur hunangofiannol maen nhw’n dangos pobl sydd efallai’n hysbys i ni, weithiau ni ein hunain, yn dod i delerau â diwedd oes neu salwch cronig mewn ffyrdd rhagweladwy sydd eto’n rhyfeddol. Mae gan y straeon hyn briodweddau sy’n debyg i’r bortreadaeth gan eu bod ar y cychwyn yn ein swyno drwy ddefnyddio trosiadau cyfarwydd a chast o gymeriadau sy’n ein gwneud i ni chwerthin, crio neu deimlo’n anesmwyth.

Astudiodd Nigel Hurlstone (ganed 1970) ar gyfer BA mewn Tecstilau Wedi’u Brodio ym Mholitechneg Manceinion gynt (Prifysgol Metropolitan Manceinion bellach) lle dyfarnwyd iddo radd dosbarth cyntaf. Yna enillodd radd MA (gyda rhagoriaeth) mewn tecstilau ac roedd yn un o’r cyntaf i dderbyn PhD ar sail ymarfer gan y Brifysgol yn 2000. Mae wedi gweithio fel ymarferydd, awdur a darlithydd hŷn dros y 30 mlynedd diwethaf ac yn 2014 sefydlodd stiwdio yn Ffynnongroyw yn Sir y Fflint, ac yno mae’n byw a gweithio bellach.

Curadwyd gan Gregory Parsons
Ffotograffiaeth portreadau Nigel Hurlstone: Dewi Tannatt Lloyd
Ffotograffiaeth arddangosfa: Dewi Tannatt Lloyd

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