Lines Laid Bare by Nathalie Frost
SARAH MILNE
Last month, I went along to Hastings Art Forum, on St Leonards Marine Court, to the 336 Paint Thread Sound exhibition opening night. The ‘paint’ came in the form of bold and striking work from Mark Shepherd and Tim Oakenfold and the ‘music,’ a wonderful, atmospheric soundscape by Richard Reinhardt. The ‘thread’ was provided by Nathalie Frost. I am also a textile artist and seamster so I may be a little biased, but for me Nathalie’s work is among the most exciting and inspirational new art I have seen in a long while. I leapt at the opportunity to catch up with Nathalie and find out more about her and her work.
Nathalie loves to use contrasting materials to form her work, such as black pen on a white surface in her line drawings and black thread on pale broken seashells. In her She Sews Seashells work, Nathalie challenges herself to create a beautiful aesthetic on broken shells by weaving and stitching black thread.
“I want to work with something that has a story, seeking out things that other people might not want to collect. Stitching, soft next to hard surface, I challenge myself with black thread to just keep on working the shell, making little meditations as I go. I don’t really plan, but I know when to stop. The shells then exist on their own but become part of something, shown together or often added into bigger pieces.”
All of Nathalie’s work is personal to her and the shells are no exception,
“I had a mother who loved beautiful things and aesthetics and a father who was very earthy. The shells bring this roughness and smoothness together.”
As well as her shells, Nathalie loves to work with fragments of textiles from different eras, written, painted and printed words, diary extracts, embroidery, and second-hand finds.
“Art is something that I felt wanted to have a meaning and a voice, somewhere I can talk. I remember being a child, making things, ripping paper up and putting them back together. I always wanting to make something new out of things and writing words on them.”
A lot of Nathalie’s work involved collecting bits of vintage clothing such as gloves, petticoats, a sleeve here and a frill there, found lace and gloves, and then patch them together like patches of history and story.
One especially powerful piece is The Flaw is the Point. This is inspired by Robin Morgan’s poem, The Lacemakers, celebrating the craftswomen who stitched and tatted tirelessly to create works of perfection for their employers. At a first glance, the piece looks like a beautiful appliqué of lace over a blouse, but up close you can see Robin’s words Nathalie felt compelled to embroider on the shoulder: “The flaw is the point. It’s the necessity. It’s everything. The work’s lifeless without it.”
Nathalie aims to promote the use of stitched works, embroidery, and craft as an art form. These were traditionally women-centred crafts and not as highly valued as the male-centric fine art.
Nathalie explains: “Growing up as female in the 1970s and 80s women weren’t encouraged to push themselves. When I left school there were two women artists I could name. I want to celebrating women artists and craftswomen, especially the lacemakers. Craft can be seen as less than fine art. It is coming together a little bit more now.”
Though Nathalie has been working on her own art since childhood, she explained to me how it has taken her until now to have the confidence to really value her own work and put it out there. A lot of this confidence has come since she moved to Hastings, four years ago, with her partner Richard Reinhardt, the musician, and composer with whom she often collaborates. The artistic energy, inspiration and encouragement has helped Nathalie to get her work out there, and it is something she feels strongly about and wants to see other people value themselves and do the same, especially women and those who may feel they too lack confidence to put their work out there as art.
Nathalie uses her work to discuss topics she feels passionate about. Another theme in her art is the fragility and transience of life and time.
This is the focus of some of Nathalie’s most recent work, Lace Faces. These are a series of ink drawings on paper combining lines and patterns from her own, aging skin with drawings of fragments of well-work lave, thread and her stitched, broken shells.
“Some people are horrified at the idea of sitting looking at your wrinkles, but it happens. If you look, you can see parts of my face; then I join them together with my day-to-day drawings and other elements of my art. It’s all about looking at age and time and giving it delicate rawness and delicate beauty. Body shaming projections onto women are ubiquitous. These are works of resistance.”
Among Nathalie’s plans in the future are to do more of her Lace Faces and make some bigger line drawing works. She explains: “I study the lines and marks laid bare by well work textiles, within the framework of the natural world, our own skin, and our own stories.”
Nathalie was recently commissioned to produce a piece for Star Croft Cabins, Battle, collaborating with her partner, Richard, to produce a piece celebrating women in the 1920s. You can find out more at starcroftfarm.co.uk.
For more about Nathalie and her work visit her website or find her on Instagram: nathaliefrostdesigns.com, instagram/nathalie.frost
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