Lily Garget (she/her)
I am a Scottish sculptor and textiles artist, based between Glasgow, Angus and Suffolk. Working with materials including sustainably sourced 100% British sheep’s wool, organic dyeing materials and mild steel, I aim to create spaces in which intangible atmospheres and experiences are translated into physical artworks. Recently I have been working on an installation of naturally dyed linen, silk and muslin, and organza which has been digitally printed with enlarged mushroom spore prints. Through these material experiments, I aim to gain a deeper understanding of the landscape surrounding me, whether that is Angus, Glasgow or Suffolk, or further afield. An important factor of my work which brings these elements together and turns the work outwards towards an audience and community engagement is knowledge exchange and sharing. Recently I have been working on a series of zines titled ‘Growing Colours’, which includes instructive segments on natural dyeing, mushroom spore printing and ink making, alongside commissioned artist interpretations of words such as ‘peat’ and ‘soil’. I am interested in creating work which binds self, place and time, through processes which work with, and not against, natural materials.
A Landscape Known
Eucalyptus bark
dead bark, curled and fallen to the Fettercairn ground, the foot of the mountain, one hundred miles from here, and so much further from its native home
soaked for three days on a waxing moon, boiled for two hours on a Sunday morning, pH2
Lichen
you understood time by picking o the singing trumpets of lichen, fallen with a branch, fallen into your hands, it smells like rain, so rain
4oz of oak moss, 3oz of old man’s beard boiled up and soaked overnight one piece of silk reaching across two pans to intertwine the colour, pH5
Aronia berries
6lbs, picked in summer from a fruiting garden, so and sweet and frozen now, steam rising as boiling water covers them
heated for two or three hours left to sleep in their red water overnight, woken with a gentle heat in the morning, drained
Have you ever caught a spore?
a shadow of a mushroom,
the underside of its gills,
turned towards the fabric, face down,
its entire being, and its next being,
set down, line after line,
white beige black
the forest floor, the foot of the angus glens,
captured here, for you
Mild steel chairs
please, sit
be held by the steel
cold from the ground
bent by hand
bound by heat
these parts hold you
now, hold you here,
in this place, in this time