What Do I Need to do to Make It OK?

Curator Liz Cooper discusses this exhibition at London’s Pumphouse Gallery, which investigates repair through the language of thread and textiles and explores the frustrations and liberations of contemporary artists challenging the conventions of craft

‘Illnesses, diseases [and] viruses damage us. We cut ourselves and then there is a sense of repair, but we don’t always repair in the same way’ – Liz Cooper

What Do I Need to Do to Make It OK?, now at the Pump House Gallery in Battersea Park, London, is a touring exhibition involving five artists, Dorothy Caldwell, Saidhbhín Gibson, Celia Pym, Freddie Robbins and Karina Thompson, each of whom brings their own approach to an investigation into damage and repair, disease and medicine, and the healing and restoration of landscapes, bodies, minds and objects through stitch and other media.

Liz Cooper is a contemporary craft curator and project manager with a background in art textiles and a strong grounding in contemporary visual arts. Her practice centres on the valuing and placement of craft practice within a wider visual arts context; and building audiences for this through work with a wide range of venues and organisations, not all of which are art-specific.

The exhibition is supported by Arts Council England and the International Textile Research Centre of the University for the Creative Arts.

Interview by KATE TIERNAN
Filmed MARTIN KENNEDY

What Do I Need to Do to Make It Ok?

Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, London
27 August 2015 – 1 November 2015
http://pumphousegallery.org.uk/

Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7DS
5 January – 5 March 2016
Symposium Wednesday 2 March 2016
http://www.csc.ucreative.ac.uk/

Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Bovey Tracey, Devon TQ13 9AF
19 March – 8 May 2016
http://www.crafts.org.uk/

Forty Hall, Enfield, North London EN2 9HA
September- November 2016
http://www.fortyhallestate.co.uk/

The National Centre for Craft & Design, Sleaford, Lincolnshire NG34 7TW
8 March – 14 May 2017
http://www.nationalcraftanddesign.org.uk/

Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, Rugby, Warwickshire CV21 3BZ
9 September 2017 – 13 January 2018
http://www.ragm.org.uk/