Sasha Kagan – My Life in Textiles : Ruthin Craft Centre

This retrospective, looking back over 40 years of knitwear design by Sasha Kagan, was disappointing. The exhibition failed because there was very little to see – less than a dozen actual garments and a handful of pattern samples.

The pieces displayed were beautiful – with rich colours and attractive and innovative patterns – but there is no way that such a small exhibition could be a retrospective for such a prolific knitwear designer. Furthermore, not only were there very few actual items to see, but those displayed didn’t fit together to create a coherent exhibition. It felt as if Kagan had opened her wardrobe or store cupboard and chosen a few random items.

As such the exhibition was organised according to the themes of the patterns on the knitwear – geometric, leaves, florals, abstract. Although it was interesting to see how the designs within each theme had changed and evolved over time - this was a missed opportunity. If the exhibition had been organised chronologically, it would have shown far more effectively the development of Kagan’s work. We could have seen the changes and developments in her ideas, designs and garments, which would have given a more rounded and complete picture of both Kagan’s work and of Kagan herself as a knitwear designer.

All the items exhibited were either finished garments or sample squares of a particular design – it could have been interesting and enlightening to see the complete design process, rather than merely the finished product. Kagan could have displayed the inspiration and ideas, sketches, samples and then the final garment, for one of her designs. This would have given the viewer a real insight in to how Kagan works – what inspires her, how the patterns evolve and ultimately how a design develops from the original idea into the finished product.

The lack of insight into Kagan’s work and the lack of any new or previously unseen work means that a visitor to this exhibition would have been better off staying at home and flicking through the Sasha Kagan book on the shelf.