Welcome to Episode 13 of Pattern Portraits!

Lauren Godfrey chats with artist Madeleine Pledge about stripes as borders, patterns as graphs and Virginia Woolf’s concept of frock consciousness.

Madeleine Pledge is an artist working sculpturally, employing a myriad of processes including knitting, sewing, casting, ceramics and printmaking. Her work stretches and contorts, leaves a physical impression, can be worn or perhaps has been. It wraps itself around and loops through, balancing and poising. Her work revels in material elements of fashion and from the history of design, reworking and reinterpreting them as a means to understand systems of production, power and authorship.

Madeleine’s take on pattern is a really broad and conceptual one, the patterns she has chosen are closely linked with her work and include childhood polkadot dungarees, a stretch knit stripe from a photograph by artist Sylvie Fleury, a pair of op art and binary code inspired balaclavas made by Madeleine after the artist Rosemarie Trockel, zig zag stripes by Missoni, and a trio of striped knitted garments by JW Anderson.

You can see all of Madeleine’s patterns and more on instagram @patternportraitspodcast

‘Maximum Baggage’ - The PATTERN PORTRAIT print artwork to accompany Madeleine’s interview and featuring the patterns we discuss is available to buy now at www.laurengodfrey.co.uk

References:

Christine Keeler chair https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O76201/the-keeler-chair-chair-unknown/

Jade Monserrat https://www.bosseandbaum.com/artists/jade-montserrat/

Ann Anlin Cheng - Second Skin, Josephine Baker and the Modern Surface https://global.oup.com/academic/product/second-skin-9780197748381?cc=gb&lang=en&

Charlie Porter - Bring No Clothes https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/453043/bring-no-clothes-by-porter-charlie/9781802061147

Bridget Riley - original article from 1965 - https://www.artnews.com/art-news/retrospective/bridget-riley-perception-is-the-medium-1965-12638/

Alice Channer https://alicechanner.com/

Weaponised Glamour at Case Study Project Space - https://www.madeleinepledge.com/weaponized-glamour

Superstructure (public image), 2023 at Eastbourne ALIVE https://www.madeleinepledge.com/superstructure-public-image

Stretch, Flatlands Projects https://www.madeleinepledge.com/stretch

Isa Genzken’s jacket https://www.madeleinepledge.com/the-weather-garden

Sarah Shepherd - knitter of the balaclavas https://www.sarahshepherd.com/

Madeleine’s Pictures for Palestine print https://www.picturesforpalestine.com/photographs/madeleine-pledge

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