Cas Holmes

Studio portrait by Robert Greshoff

Cas Holmes work often contains snippets of text or discarded materials that have associations or conjure up memories. There is always a dialogue with the materials she uses. They bring their own history which is woven into the work. These collections of ephemera might seem meaningless but their apparent banality is open-ended. They are available to stimulate the imagination through the poetry of ordinariness. Everything has a connection and each viewer makes their own connections.

Moira Vincentelli,  Essay for the exhibition ‘Reflections’

Everything in there, (studio) such as the Windsor chair or the 1960s hairdresser’s seat which she uses when she’s machining, has a patina of age, or of another ‘life’ once lived. All are artefacts, chosen and treasured for a utility that’s indivisible from the pleasure of tactility and the stimulation of memory. As with the blurring of physical boundaries,Holmes speaks about the interplay between her textile work and the things that surround her and how a plant’s cast shadow can find itself ‘meandering across the cloth.

Ellen Bell, The Sewing Room, Embroidery Magazine.

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