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Bird in the Hand (detail)

Rook Earth, 2002, Watercolour on paper

Design Staff

Nigel Cheney, BA(Hons), MA
Acting Head of Fashion and Textiles

After gaining a first class B.A Textiles, with Commendation in Art History, in 1990, Nigel Cheney graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1991 with an MA Textiles. He has held the position of Lecturer in Embroidered Textiles at NCAD since 1993.

He has been the Republic of Ireland Selector for the Lódz Tapestry Triennale, Poland, since 2000. Professional duties have included being an External Examiner for the B.A. Textile Design, Bradford College 2002-2004. He is an expert in Industrial Multi head embroidery and has worked with several companies in Ireland and the UK.

His studio practice has revolved around the act of drawing and the production of stitched textiles for fashion, interiors, commission and gallery work. Recent works reflect the emotions and images associated with particular pieces of music. The titles refer to fragments of lyrics, which are indicative of some of these wide-ranging references. This work is predominantly process led, grounded in tradition and a passion for cloth and textile craftsmanship, with a striving for technical excellence. The ability to combine a wide variety of historical techniques is an essential part of the ‘act of making’ and a refection on historical processes such as blackwork, voiding, appliqué, and hand stitches. These are juxtaposed with the utilisation of digital media, transfer prints and hand painted cloth, reinterpreted through machine techniques and a contemporary aesthetic. These eclectic images are digitally scanned, manipulated, transferred, and embroidered. The resulting textile itself is often then rescanned and so the process repeats, like a refrain lingering in the subconscious long after the sound has faded. Textiles are worked, dissected, assembled, over printed, stitched and then cut up again. These complex surfaces and textures are continually pulled apart and composed until the compositions are in the discord and harmony associated with their original audible inspiration.

Despite the narrative elements of the work they are not meant as illustrations, rather a response to the stimulus of the record collection.