Artist
Bec Kirby
Bec Kirby is a Manchester-based textile artist working under the creative name of “soosumsee”. Working across a variety of mediums, her practices include tufting, embroidering, drawing, and painting. Working predominately in Interior Design for the last seven years, her understanding of how spaces, objects, and materials affect emotion led her to create a series of personal keepsakes for the home, which in turn became ‘The Series of Eight’ - her first homeware collection.
Bec’s body of work comprises of a series of cushions, wall-hangings, and soft-tapestry blankets. Drawing influence from reoccurring hallucinations she suffered with as a child, along with notions of death, loss, and grief. Each tufted piece is handcrafted in her studio, using responsibly sourced materials.
She says “I work with dead-stock yarn, disused by the textile industry, destined for land-fill. I re-purpose this yarn and weave it into homeware pieces that are going to be cherished for years to come.”
AVAILABLE ARTWORKS
Shop by Collection
The Christmas Collection
“Tufted from remnant wool, the collection is inspired by Sergei Parajanov's 'The Colour of Pomegranates. An evocation of the poet's life, drawing on the visual references and subtle notions that run through-out the film. Each piece sold in an edition of four.” - Bec Kirby
May Drop 2023
"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams, wandering by lone sea-breakers, and sitting by desolate streams; — World-losers and world-forsakers, on whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and shakers, of the world forever, it seems.' - 'Ode' by Arthur O'Shaughnessy. A body of work inspired by the freedom of creation. Combining two of my favourite mediums, painting and tufting, shape studies created in leftover dye inspire tapestry forms, tufted from dead-stock wool in a long cut-pile, which then undergoes a process of hot wool-washing to distort the fibers." - Bec Kirby, Bravery, Homing, Cemented
Drop 5 - Winter 2022
"This collection comprises a series of tapestries depicting close relationships between people, places and sounds." - Bec Kirby, Say Something
Drop 3 - High Summer 2022
‘Les Larmes Du Tigre’ by Pablos Eye. “After death comes a rebirth. My voice is the voice that will protect you like your shadow. You will become one with nature and when the sun goes up you become a shadow yourself to protect the others.” A depiction of protection and a rebirth. - Bec Kirby, Rebirth
The Home Open Call Collection
"‘Time, Home’ is a collection of tufted tapestries inspired by observations made within the home; drawing influence from things that once went un-noticed, pre-pandemic. Commuting and working long hours meant I missed a lot of things at home, simple things, but things I just hadn’t noticed until I had the time pause. Like the paint marks on the stairs from our (never ending) renovation. The hallway had always been so dark before I left for work, so I had never really noticed them before. The wood pigeons that sit on the trees at the back of the garden in the afternoon, at the same time everyday, without fail. My cat’s day-time routine, the scratches they’ve made on the furniture and a plethora of other things that I had once been to busy to acknowledge." - Bec Kirby, ‘Time, Home’
