A close up of a loom with tapestry in progress, the sewn section shows a speech bubble on a dark background with a squiggly white line and yellow thunderbolt. The bubble reads: “You only have yourself to blame”

An unfired clay sculpture of an embellished vase that includes clay ladders, brick walls, money bags, eyes and lumps near the top that could be boulders. At the base curved triangles point up and suggest flames, at the top of the sculpture there is a smiling face with two fangs, small pointy horns, and wings like a cheeky devil or angel.

A studio/workshop with a large wooden loom that has a tapestry in progress, with ends of yarn hanging down at various points. In the foreground there are large balls and cones of yarn in different shades of blue and pink, with the odd ball of yellow or green.

DREAM WEAVING

Dream Weaving is a collection of tapestries, textiles, and ceramics, by artist Molly Kent that records the dreams and nightmares brought on by their mental health conditions.

For Torn Together, Molly is taking us behind the scenes into their process and research, with images from the studio, pages from sketchbooks, collages, and videos.

A digital drawing that looks like a 2D game with floating brick walls and ladders, with exit signs, clouds, rain droplets, eyes, cursors, error messages, and hands reaching up from flames. Pixel text in the centre reads: “GAME OVER”.

A desk with a collection of fired ceramic sculptures that are white, surrounded by paint brushes and paints to be glazed. The sculptures are of vases, and one house with various embellishments including barbed wire, chains, flames.

A wooden loom with a tapestry in progress, the sewn section shows a series of overlapping window browsers that look like a pop-up, with an error message that reads: “WE’RE ALL DOOMED”.

A clay workshop with a collection of unfired clay sculptural vases of various sizes with different embellishments including barbed wire, chains, flames and a larger vase with adders, brick walls, and a smiling face with two fangs, small pointy horns, and wings like a cheeky devil or angel on the top.

A wooden loom with a tapestry in progress, the sewn section shows a dark sky with figures, droplets, what looks like paper or files falling, and a window browser of an error message reads “Time is up”.

Left: Ignorance is Bliss; Right: Error Message

Through the recurring themes of falling, extreme weather, and digital anxieties, Dream Weaving blends symbols of personal trauma, with those of mysticism, myths, and legends. Beginning in 2021 the series marks the collective shift, brought on by the COVID pandemic and the resulting domestic quarantines, into an almost constant state of cyberspace.

With the title Dream Weaving acting as a reference to the Adobe software Dreamweaver, Molly uses snippets of our digital experience including emojis, computer windows, and mouse cursors, to show the blurring of our digital, physical, and internal lives.

The tension between the benefits and difficulties of being online underpins Molly’s work. From the pressure of staying painfully up to date, obsessive scrolling, or negative comparisons, to the ability to share work, reach people, and connect with others. This is significant to Molly as an artist with Autism, as online spaces allow them to share work without the negative impacts that can come with in-person participation.

Sketchbook Scans

Molly’s woven, tufted, and sculpted scenes take inspiration from elements of medieval paintings, 80s/90s video games, Japanese depictions of hell, and doomscrolling articles about the climate disaster and politics.

To view the her process click here

Left: Vessel Of Life; Right: Everything That Could Go Wrong, Did Go Wrong (But Maybe It’s Not My Fault)

Elements from this exhibition, and the rest of our programme, will be shared across our digital platforms. Find out more about Torn Together and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to make sure you don’t miss out.

MOLLY KENT

Molly Kent is a textile artist who uses rug tufting and weaving to explore different experiences of mental health. Through these materials, they consider how contemporary existence, and internet living, affects our perception of self. Informed by their personal experiences of the mental health condition CPTSD, and neurodevelopment disability Autism, Molly’s work draws on broader anxieties and fears that were heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic; including climate disaster, humanitarian crises, and social media burnout.