Watching the Sky At Night: Maggie Aderin-Pocock

As a textile artist my pasions are colour, line, shape and texture. I work in series and the main ones I am currently working on are: Maps and Aerial Views; and Magic and Science. I love the shapes and lines offered by representations of our earth, which I interpret with my own colour palette, and add texture with dense quilting.

I also like incorporating text in my work. My pieced, stitched, fused and collaged textile works aim to convey symbols and meanings. Climate change is an important concern and I have made maps expressing the dangers our earth is experiencing. My Magic and Science pieces have covered from alchemy to string theory to cosmological equations, and now space science. Most of my pieces in both series are imaginary and interpretative.

As a young girl, growing up in Argentina, I wanted to be an astronomer, but my weakness in maths and the lack of encouraging teachers made it difficult. However, throughout my life I have retained a strong interest in science and cosmology, which I have been able to indulge in England, my adopted country, where I now live. So for HERstory, I chose a woman astronomer, space scientist and engineer, who is also a committed educator.

This piece is inspired by views of the sky at night, my knowledge of the solar system and the universe, and by photographs from the Hubble Telescope.

Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a UK space scientist, satellite engineer, television presenter, and inspirational communicator, encouraging children and adults to become scientists, engineers, astronomers and astronauts.

Hand-dyed fabrics, fusible web, polyester thread