I visited the Electric Dreams exhibition on at Tate Modern, London, until 1st June 2025 and thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition that ranged from 2D artworks, sound, kinetic sculpture, light projections and installations, featuring international artists and groups. Mathematical systems and rules, machine-controlled movement as well as material and pattern play resulted in a fascinating show I thoroughly recommend.
The exhibition was described as ‘art and technology before the internet’ and included C20th items from the Pop Art era through to early computing and video work. Our perception and senses were being challenged in many ways as we experienced the installations and artefacts. Some exhibits performed constantly, others, often featuring movement or light were timed, so I worked my way back and forth between the rooms to ensure I’d seen all I could in performance mode. The current trend for immersive gallery experiences were put in to context in this exhibition.
Left to right: Atsuko Tanaka (pic 1 & 2), Francois Morellet
Left to right / top to bottom: Otto Pine, Julio Le Parc, Martha Boto, Alberto Biasi, Analivia Cordeiro
installation: Carlos Cruz-Diez
Left to right: Mariana Apollonia, Lucia Di Luciano
A grey-sky day slowly peeled back by mid-afternoon to reveal beautiful blue sky and high mountains with patches of snow. Following a slow late lunch of polenta and other local cuisine we prepped our bags and headed for the hills. Most people were coming down from the mountain as we started to climb, but we were well prepared, with tummies full ready for the walk upwards, not quite sure how far we’d get or how far we would see, but willing to make the most of the fine weather.
Walking in this sort of landscape can be overwhelming seeing as we live in the famously flat county of Norfolk. The vast scale of the mountains and the views stretching across the valley grabbed our attention initially. The purple greys and intense greens of the mountain sides played with the ever-shifting fluffy pale clouds. As we climbed along with the vastness of the mountain hues it was the pockets of colour, highlights of white, patches of sunshine yellow, pinks and mauves, acid green and deep crimsons and blue that competed as I put one foot in front of the other in the steep ascent. As we climbed new flowers became our companions beside the path, in the nooks and crannies of the rocks and high on the mountain pass.
Edelweiss and buttercups, scabious and azalea amongst plenty of others I was not familiar with. Although late in the summer there was so much colour to enjoy as there had been a very wet spell a few weeks before. Looking back up the valley as we drove back along the valley there was no sign of the colours we had walked amongst, but we knew they were there, ready for others to enjoy.
I’ve recently returned from a lovely family holiday, traveling by train from Norfolk to London and via Paris through France to the south and on in to Italy, up into the foothills of the Alps via Turin … and back again. I made lots of small sketchbooks so I could have one close at hand at all times, with a selection of pens and pencils. I’ve always enjoyed drawing from trains, preferably sitting backwards, looking, identifying shapes and details, then hastily capturing what I saw in a few lines.
It’s a great exercise to keep the hand, brain and eyes in check, and although I have previously used this sort of drawing for my design work – including my degree Final Major Project back in 1997 – I only really do it now as a good activity to check in with the view and focus on the places, stations and landscapes I journey between, and as exercise for keeping my drawing practice fit and healthy. A gable-end of a barn, a cluster of trees or mountain horizons can be documented and it’s amazing how these drawings are then able to capture and remind me of the journey years later.
Here are some of the drawing from the trains. I sometimes get a bit more detail down if we sit in the station for a few minutes, and I jot the station name down for interest.
I also managed to do a small amount of drawing while sat in cafes or sheltering from sun while other family members were up to something else. They take a few minutes each, so still pretty quick observations. It’s clear my interest in pattern comes in to how I see the world. Rhythms of windows and balconies, railings, ornamental buildings….
I also made a couple of sketchbooks using tracing paper as I was interested to see how I worked with the transparent pages as the drawings built. I quite like the results and reminds me of how I plan lino blocks and screen prints with the layers of tracing paper.
It was definitely good to spend time drawing and I’m thinking of revisiting some in the studio, no pressure, just a few ideas. I hope you like them, let me know if / how you make drawings from trains!
I have been fortunate in having my pattern research selected for inclusion in a really exciting exhibition opportunity in Bristol, led by academic Lucy Ward from University of the West of England.
“APERIODIC brings together artists, scientists, musicians and others in an exhibition about pattern. The show presents work that explores ideas relating to the mathematics and science of ‘aperiodic order’: the absence of regular or repetitive patterns. Or, more simply, ‘things that almost repeat, but not quite’. The exhibition is part of the APERIODIC festival of art, science, music and performance taking place this July in Bristol.” official exhibition text(APERIODIC, 3-14 July 2024 at Kit Form Gallery, Bristol)
The two pieces I had selected explore block rotation in the over printing of further colour layers, resulting in a building up of a more complex design:
Geo / grid / starLino print
Fields of seemingly reliable compositions of geometric motifs provide the rhythm of assurance through repetition of geometric rhythms but the swapping of small details amongst the motifs unsettles the overall pattern and disrupts the repeating design. The block is rotated before printing of the second colour.
6-spot rotation, multi-direction Lino print
Built upon Lewis F. Days’ principles of distribution of motifs in pattern design (1901), motifs are placed within a tile, 6 x 6 to provide balance and direction when repeated. As the second colour is applied the block has been rotated by 90 degrees in each printing of the tile over the original blue. The repeat is broken and a disorder is established.
One of the highlights of having the work selected for exhibition was the opportunity to have a mathematician review my work aligned to their own interests in pattern. Yotam Smilansky is a Lecturer in Dynamical Systems and Analysis at the University of Manchester, with a special interest in aspects of order and disorder in geometric patterns so I was interested in what they had to say about the work on exhibition.
Yotam Smilansky on Kate Farley, ‘Geo / grid / star’ and ‘6-spot rotation, multi-direction’:
“We notice a certain form, a sense balance, but it might take us a little while before we realise exactly what’s going on. Then we get it: the complicated object before us is made of a single ingredient, copied and superpositioned. It is surprising, even magical, how the unassuming process of layering rotated copies of a single pattern can result in a rich family of objects with a wide range of properties. This is evident, for example, in the moiré patterns of twisted bilayer graphene, where a slight change of angle results in completely different electrical properties, and is beautifully demonstrated in Farley’s mesmerising prints.“
Yotam’s response interested me as I’ve been exploring ways to disrupt and challenge the repeating tiles through transformation and evolution of individual elements within an apparently repeating pattern. I’m certainly keen to continue with this work and am grateful for this opportunity to gain feedback as well as discover the work of other pattern-makers. You can read other reviews of exhibiting artists by mathematicians here.
Thank you Lucy, Yotam and all those supporting the event.
A precious holiday to Greece in the early summer has provided plenty of nourishment for my creativity, as well as excellent down-time, walking and eating. It’s just taken me a long time to get this post together!
I’ve been creating photographic records of artefacts collected on holidays for some time – a great way of remembering the specifics of a walk without having to bring it all home! I’ve also enjoyed creating composite images to represent experiences over the years, some featured on the posts here, so I’ve done the same for Greece.
We visited the Cyclades, and specifically the islands of Santorini and Sifnos. The night on Santorini was for old-time’s sake, and the stay on Sifnos was to get to know an island we’d not been to before. It is a beautiful island, with lots to explore – I’d love to go back to one day!
Here’s a collection of precious finds from the 70+km of walks across Sifnos on their excellent trails, some very prickly! As marble was everywhere I thought it appropriate to use the marble table by our room as the background surface:
First up with the composite images – colour:
Next up: pattern, material & finish, including Greek yoghurt and honey of course:
For a number of years I’ve been aware of the fascinating work of Colorifix, an award winning bacterial dye biotech start-up organisation based in Norwich leading the way for a more sustainable dye practice. Following some planning and support from our technical team I was able to host PhD researcher Ruth Lloyd in partnership with Colorifix to share with us their work and to lead a workshop for our BA3 students. Ruth is carrying out practice-based research “to develop and commercialise bacterial dyes, where she will further explore the capacity of colour producing microorganisms to create human designed patterns”.
We were treated to a insightful presentation by Ruth about the science and development of the colours, before we were able to have a go at printing with the bacterial dye colours. The students and staff tested painting the colour directly on to the fabric as well as painting on the screen then transferring the colour, as well as using paper stencils with the open screens.
The range of colours is limited at the moment, so this is something being worked on by Ruth and the team at Colorifix. The different fibre content of the fabrics printed on can significantly impact on how the colour appears so we were testing natural and synthetic fabrics to build our technical files and our own understanding of colour and textiles. Thanks Ruth and Colorifix!
It’s been a while since posting here, but I’ve been busy enjoying summer adventures and developing exciting pattern research alongside getting the academic year underway. I’ve also moved in to a new studio space so I’ll share that in due course.
My pattern research focusing on the repeat print block and how it can be used to generate multiple variations to evolve pattern options continues, with sampling with screen and lino printing. I thought I’d share the more structural outcomes here, linking back to my book art practice. I enjoy discovering links that connect the broader practice I’ve developed over the last twenty five years.
As I folded the sheets of printed pattern the forms appeared to suggest a built environment so I explored the idea a little in how I photographed the pieces. Testing scale and contexts is a vital part in developing a pattern, and I enjoy the possibilities.
Colour inspires me. I love to work with colours; creating pairings and partnerships of colour to build reactions between them, evoking moods and setting a spirit through colour choices. I notice colour relationships every day, and enjoy considering why certain colours thrive alongside others. I love to wear colours too, and like to contrast materials as well as colour to create interesting relationships. I do worry if I find myself in brown trousers and a green top – I don’t want to look like a tree!
Over the last eighteen months I’ve spent time mixing colour using gouache paints, matching colours perfectly with items collected from walks. Little collections of seaweed, shells, catkins, feathers and leaves have sat patiently in the studio while I mix and match. I’m good at matching colours and would be perfectly happy spending hours a week doing just that.
I also enjoy creating colour palettes, sometimes for projects, or my teaching sessions, and sometimes just because what I see around me suggests a perfect palette to explore and create. Our garden has been a bit of a project over the last two years and this summer the new borders are filled with colour that bring such joy to me. My mood is lifted when I see colours working together well. Here are two results from a photograph taken in the garden earlier this month, just because the splashes of colour were pleasing enough to capture.
I like the dominant green that provides the backdrop for the brighter colour accents, and the shapes of the flowers are like splashes of colour dropped in to the soothing green. The pink, red and orange provide the warmth, while the blues are calming and restful. The depths of the border at the bottom of the flower stems are dark, no doubt cool away from the summer sun.
I decided to explore the role proportions of colour play in a palette in the second image. The width of each colour stripe is representative of the area it covers in the image. Back in 1994 this was one of the summer projects I was tasked with as I started my degree in textile design – and all these years on I still enjoy doing it! You can see how the colours perform when dominant, or work as accent colours in thin slithers. There are always main characters and supporting roles in a palette, but it takes all sorts to put on a performance!
When selecting the colours in the image for the palette I worked with the larger areas of colour first, then looked to see how the colours had natural partners to sit next to in the stripe. The accent colours grab the attention of my eyes. Both images reflect the same colour palette, but present themselves quite differently.
Back in March I began a new series of colour of works on paper that were simply about mixing and matching colour, evolving hues through the process of painting individual swatches to build the narrative in a sequence, as if a technical exercise at art school. You can read about those pieces here.
I’ve continued to gather pieces from nature on the walks I’ve been on this summer and have continued with the process of mixing colour and so I thought I’d share some here.
I’m doing this simply as I love to make colour, and really enjoy working with the gouache paint for its colour qualities. The process occupies my mind, suggests potential avenues for future work and connects me with nature through the mementoes I make. The seasons change and the colours alter, but the swatches hold memories in the process of mixing, and I can almost smell the dry heat of the corn, and the cool shade of the wood where I found the Jay feather.
Many years ago my flatmate was given a passion flower plant and when the flowers came we were both in awe of their splendid form; a thing of beauty in our otherwise less than beautiful flat in Camberwell, south London. I made drawings of the flowers and sometime later developed some patterns from it, screen printing it as repeating designs and placement prints. I created the motifs by deconstructing the elements that constitute the flower head.
More years passed and sometime around 2012 I revisited those screen printed patterns, this time interpreting them as lino cuts as part of my Plot to Plate series of editioned lino prints. Last year I planted two passion flower plants in our new garden and last week we had the first bloom. It took me right back to that first flower in the flat in Camberwell, and was reminded of the pattern again.
Whenever I look back at old work I’m likely to want to make changes, and this is the case here too, but each design also holds a moment, defines a time, and sometimes that makes it what it is. I’d not imagined I’d connect that flower to my practice almost twenty years later…
This pattern remains available as a set of patterned Plot to Plate greetings cards.
I’ve continued to gather pieces from nature on the walks I’ve been on this summer and have continued with the process of mixing colour and so I thought I’d share some here.
Kate Farley - drawn to design 