Mechanical drawing, Schiffli project: GROUP EXHIBITION
Manchester Metropolitan University

This was an exhibition of artwork by fifteen artists using a historic embroidery machine—the last remaining machine of its kind. The artists, mainly staff from the Faculty of Art and Design, at Manchester Metropolitan University, produced their work using the 100-year-old Schiffli, a multi-needle embroidery machine capable of mechanically stitching repeat patterns over a two-metre piece of cloth.

“I see the line differently with the schiffli,” Kettle explains. “It becomes a many faceted conversation between multiple threads, that are all connected in the same movement. The huge machine gives incredible subtlety and expression to the line, what at first seems a lumbering giant carries the potential of complex and intricate artistry.”

These historic machines were used extensively in the 19th and 20th centuries to produce decorative embroidery and had an industry base in the North West of England and Nottingham. Cheaper manufacturing costs in the Far East led to the closure of all UK Schiffli companies, which were unable to compete economically with overseas markets.

The exhibition showed work including subverted domestic objects, such as Dixon and Welsh’s Armchair Politico, Kate Egan’s inflating and deflating quilt Stack, and Nina Edge’s net curtain Nothing Is Private. Wall pieces included large-scale figurative works by Alice Kettle, Nigel Cheney, and Rowena Ardern, as well as a quilt by Lynn Setterington. More intimate work was presented in the form of a series of rag books by Jane McKeating, and Rozanne Hawksley’s Anthem for Albion, a poignant installation referencing global conflict. Sally Morfill, Isabel Dibden Wright, Jill Boyes, and Melanie Miller played with the inherent repetition of the machine to create wall-based pieces, and Susan Platt created a Schiffli poem, The Lost Thread.

Mechanical Drawing raised questions about obsolescence, technology, and globalisation.

The exhibition continued at a further six venues in the UK in 2008.