Making Process
Craft Central, London 2023
Inspired by the dichotomy of past and present, Almha’s work is informed by traditional craft processes which are expanded into a contemporary sphere through expressive use of colour, pattern and intuitive experimentation with materials.
Almha’s work looks at the symbolic and emotive qualities of textiles and craft and how they connect us to heritage, relationships and our environment. The exhibition consists of wall-hangings, quilts and objects using repetitive hand-painted motifs and patterns in contrast with minimalist blocks of colour. Visually, Almha is inspired by abstract expressionism, traditional quilting, rural Irish landscape, domestic textiles and urban construction. The work seeks to invoke an emotive an intuitive response, exploring the process of finding balance within opposition.
Almha is committed to sustainability and craft in her practice as an artist and maker. The materials in this exhibition are Irish or European Linen and secondhand fabric. Each piece is carefully crafted by her in her studio - she prints, stitches and constructs every piece with delicate skill and care. The pieces are meant to be enjoyed at home or experienced in a gallery space.
This exhibition was supported by Craft Central as part of their Graduate Support Programme, which Almha was awarded in 2022. She also received support for material costs from The Eaton Fund, 2023.
RCA Graduate Show (‘Mamó’)
Royal College of Art, London 2021
‘Mamó’ explores our relationship to landscape and environment in relation to making, craft and materiality.
My project began by looking into my Grandmother’s landscape paintings of Co.Down, Northern Ireland. I became interested by the close relationship she had with the natural landscape around her. I explored her version of her environment in relation to my own. I observe and capture my surroundings through photography - photos of urban spaces, objects and happenings. Through this project I interweave her story and mine, her place and mine, through making, building and collaging.
I’m fascinated by the way we as humans can invent, create and discover through our own personal interpretation of materials and things - based on our specific environment, our needs and our knowledge. I am interested in exploring the idea of how you can connect to your environment and utilise what’s around you to make something new, or useful or beautiful.
Through an intuitive and process driven approach to making, my project explores the tensions between urban and rural, function and decoration, balance and imbalance, restriction and freedom through the use of hard and soft materials. The relationship between furniture and textiles underpins the work resulting in a collection of sculptural pieces / prototypes. Created by re-purposing materials I gathered and collected from my immediate environment combined with textile processes such as hand painted fabrics and embroidery.