{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1717205"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1717205/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2022NG6745/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2022NG6745/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2022NG6745","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2022NG6748","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2022NG6750","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2022NG6752","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2022NG6754","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2022NE3570","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O1717205/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1717205","accessionNumber":"T.93-2022","objectType":"Textile artwork","titles":[{"title":"Too Long for its Space","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"Ann Sutton (born 1935, North Staffordshire) is an internationally important textile artist. Her creative practice is unusually wide ranging and has spanned traditional weaving, computerised weaving, pattern design, sculpture and works on canvas and paper. From a textile trained background, she explores the possibilities of construction that fibre and weave offer.  Sutton is representative of a move in British making, from the 1950s onwards, away from intrinsic interest in craft methodology towards an engagement with the concerns of contemporary art. Sutton’s own interest is in logic and rationality, and the mathematical systems of weaving and textile construction are central to her work. These systems of making not only act as subjects to explore and guide the work but often remain apparent in the open visible structures of her pieces. Of her method she comments ‘No aesthetic decisions, driven by reasoning’. This approach roots Sutton in Constructivist thinking. \r\nSutton’s work has evolved continuously and by the 1980s she sought new challenges beyond woven textiles and moved to work based on canvas or paper. The use of monofilament within these works allowed for some three-dimensionality. However the physicality and texture of thread eventually drew her back to the loom. ‘Too Long for its Space’ is from this later period of work.  The piece exemplifies Sutton’s habit of questioning the systems of weaving and the properties of fibres. Bright distinct colours are often used by Sutton and here help create the design and signal the controlled systematic nature of the piece. The work is finished by exploiting the different ways wool and cotton react to water. Rooted in the mathematical principles of weaving, this small artwork has a dynamic, almost kinetic quality thanks to the partially free moving, coloured threads.\r\n","physicalDescription":"Woven undyed wool backcloth with six cotton threads in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple woven into the backcloth at intervals to create quadrilateral spaces which increase in size from bottom left to top right. The coloured threads are the same length as the intervals but because they are not fully woven in they sit freely on the surface and appear longer due to the reduction of the backcloth. The work is framed in its original perspex frame which was chosen by the artist. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Sutton, Ann (OBE)","id":"AUTH315718"},"association":{"text":"Maker, Designer","id":"x30792"},"note":"Ann Sutton (born 1935, North Staffordshire) is an internationally important textile artist. Her creative  practice is unusually wide ranging and has spanned traditional weaving, computerised weaving, pattern  design, sculpture and works on canvas and paper. She has worked in craft and industry. She is also  known for her work as a writer and educator. Her books include The Structure of Weaving, 1982 and  British Craft Textiles, 1985. In 1980 she presented the BBC series, ‘The Craft of the Weaver’. In 2004, a  major retrospective of her work was toured by the Crafts Council who considered her ‘one of Britain’s  leading makers’. In 1991 she was awarded an MBE and in 2022 an OBE for services to textiles. "}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"wool","id":"x40131"},{"text":"cotton fibre","id":"AAT183670"}],"techniques":[{"text":"hand weaving","id":"AAT53643"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Undyed overspun wool, coloured cotton threads, handwoven on a 24 shaft loom. \r\nTo create this piece, bands of coloured cotton threads are incorporated, at increasingly spaced intervals, into the weaving of the undyed woollen ground cloth. When weaving is finished the coloured cotton threads, stretched taut from woven intersection to woven intersection, create straight sided quadrilaterals. The whole piece is then washed and, as the wool shrinks more than the coloured cotton threads, the cotton threads become overlong and loose, distorting the previously even sided quadrilaterals. Overspun wool is chosen as it relaxes and shrinks without felting when washed resulting in a condensed cloth with a certain amount of elasticity.\r\n\n\n\n","categories":[{"text":"Textiles","id":"THES48885"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&F","id":"THES48601"},"images":["2022NG6745","2022NG6748","2022NG6750","2022NG6752","2022NG6754","2022NE3570"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES384084"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"woven textile","id":"x35983"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1993","earliest":"1993-01-01","latest":"1993-12-31"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased from New Art Centre","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Width","value":"488","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"489","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"50","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"285","unit":"mm","qualifier":"at bottom","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"wool backcloth","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"273","unit":"mm","qualifier":"at top","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"wool backcloth","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"304","unit":"mm","qualifier":"left side","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"wool backcloth","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"317","unit":"mm","qualifier":"right side","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"wool backcloth","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"In 2008 the artist returned to the concept of this work and produced a monochrome version with bands of black cotton thread. ","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Woven textile artwork, 'Too Long for its Space', wool and cotton, Ann Sutton, 1993","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Exhibited as part of 'Ann Sutton, On From Weaving, Works 1955 - 2021', New Art Centre, 27 November 2021 - 15 January 2022"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["T.93-2022"],"accessionNumberNum":"93","accessionNumberPrefix":"T","accessionYear":2022,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-10","recordCreationDate":"2022-04-25","availableToBook":false}}