“Perhaps, after all there is some part of it worth salvaging – that sense of testing something out, of testing out the limits of our own subjectivity in the face of this work” [1].
Experimentation
I’ve come to understand the importance of experimentation within my practice and how this has become an act of embodiment. The textile work, a response to a crude self-portrait taken with my phone, began as an investigation in pattern and its relationship to my body. I fuse the layers of manipulated, laser cut and etched modular forms to test their density and durability and add acrylic structures or skeletons to experience the limits and capacities of the materials. Their geometric modular construction becomes juxtaposed with the fibres’ natural drape and asks the viewer to investigate their connection points to discover whether they are pinned, tied, stitched, or digitally engineered.
In response to these tension points within my textile work, I was drawn to ceramics as a means of exploring that relationship further. What began as an effort to shift the perceived weight of the textile forms, by grounding them, led me to further explore porcelain as a medium. Attracted to the familiar yet foreign, and the tension between what the eye perceives and the true nature of a medium, I began to explore this contradiction through a series of porcelain studies. These examine weight through slip casting, luminosity and transparency, fragility, and the potential of creating draped fabric like forms that are traces of the female body.
Shadows
The word passive means to accept or allow what happens, without resistance. Pattern is defined as any regularly repeated arrangement. To break through the constraints and skill set associated with my design practice in textile printing, it quickly became evident that what I was exploring was pattern, not the production and intended outcome or use of pattern.
I began to create paper forms and stencils to shoot light through in order to use shadow as a means of experimenting with pattern. It was a low impact, “passive” pattern solution: the wall and my body became the substrate, light and stencils the medium, and photo documentation the end result.
Forms
In a continued exploration of passive pattern, the paper forms began as studies for a structure that I could step into and pull up over my body. I started by hand cutting models from 12” by 12” cardstock. Once I refined the mechanism, the form was digitally rendered in Adobe Illustrator as a vector file that could be laser cut. Restricted by the size of the laser bed, the module fit a 12” by 12” parameter. I began material testing by laser cutting a single layer of maximally over-printed linen fabric. The pre-existing layers of print media on the surface of the offcuts created a sturdy structure that could maintain its form when hung and pulled open by gravity. The first single layer tests were comparably soft and droopy. The second test, cut from two fused linen layers, was robust and less affected by gravity.
Drape
The grams per square meter (GSM), the weight of a fabric’s weave and fibre structure, affected the nature of the drape. The higher a fabric's GSM, the thicker and more hard-wearing it's likely to be. I found that the heavier the GSM, and more robust the fibre or thread, the weaker the laser cut structure was. The tighter weaves from thinner threads had more threads per cm and made for a stronger structure. Furthermore, silk being a continuous filament was stronger, verses linen and cotton which are shorter fibres. Lastly, when scaled up to six connected modules, the weight of the linen was more affected by gravity than the silk.
Scale
The interlacing, lattice like nature of the structure, designed to stay connected at certain points while stretching open, inspired further exploration of the modular form. One that could be built onto and scaled up to stretch over the body. Modules were designed to be attached to each other which created the possibility for larger yardages. When the laser cut module stretched open it took on a net like appearance that could be draped, wrapped, twisted, tucked and manipulated in a variety of ways. Edges could be left open ended, to pull apart or closed, to hold a selvedge like quality that maintained the edge.
Colour
Colour and surface pattern were eliminated at the onset of my experimentation in order to focus on developing the form. The distance allowed me to reintroduce them into the work more mindfully. I chose to use natural materials and dyes, an ethos rooted in conscious making practices and environmental considerations. The final forms are made from off white, red and black silk. A natural warm red or scarlet developed from a dye bath of equal parts madder, cochineal and brazilwood. Madder roots produce a variety of reds including orange reds, brick red, blood red and fiery reds. Cochineal, a tiny, cactus-dwelling insect produces a vibrant cooler red pigment and brazilwood gives a range of strong red dyes, from deep crimsons to pinks. Blacks, or rather deep greys, were accomplished by over-dyeing in logwood and then an iron mordant bath.
Surface
The surface design was inspired by antique hand embroidered net lace. I created the pattern by scanning the lace and creating a digital vector with Adobe Illustrator from which I engineered a repeating pattern. Inspired by the outcome I then recreated a similar effect from images of cast shadows created by the forms. Repeating digital vector patterns were developed and then laser etched onto the surface of the fabric.
Finally, I explored surface depth through two-dimensional pleating that created permanent peaks and valleys with the modular structure. This was accomplished by developing a pleat pattern mock-up in Adobe Illustrator that I cut from cardstock, scored and folded. I sandwiched the silk between two mock-ups, tightened them together, then tied and steam creased it in a bullet steamer.
Tension
I designed a clear acrylic hook to display the experimental textile pieces. This led to the introduction of acrylic parts to the forms for varying reasons, from altering them to helping keep their shape. With the introduction of acrylic parts, I began to observe tension points within the textile pieces and the potential for shifting the tension points by adding weight.
I was inspired to create a solid form in response to the soft geometric textile pieces. One that would mirror the silhouette of the soft form and be a resting point or plinth for the work. My goal was to shift the perceived weight of the work by taking the viewers eye away from the hanging mechanism of the textile work above, down the soft form to the grounded weight of the solid mass in contact with the floor. I drafted a flat pattern for the structure, then sewed a leather container which was then filled and cast from plaster to create a stretched, bulbous like form with seams and a skin texture.
Traces
Traces are the indication or existence of something that has passed. The impression of skin left by the leather on the surface of the large plaster form was intended to suggest the presence of the body. Inspired to explore this further, I chose to learn the process of slip casting and experiment with the transparent nature of porcelain. I planned to illuminate the forms and draw attention to the skin impression on their surfaces. I began by creating a smaller plaster version of the leather form to use as my positive for the mold. A five-part mold was then cast from the positive and a series of nine slip cast porcelain forms were created in their likeness. In reflection, my impression was left on the surface of the final slip cast pieces through the imperfections and irregularities left by a maker learning a new skill set. These traces are in relationship with my body and are an act of embodiment that shows my relationship with the material and the materials response and relationship with me as the maker.
Fragility
As a fibre-based artist I found working in ceramics to be a very vulnerable experience. Over the past fifteen years I have honed a skill set in surface design and textile printing. There was a fragility in learning to be comfortable while I was uncomfortable. In reflection, the nature of porcelain and the way in which I was exploring the medium mirrored these feelings. I tested the boundaries of the medium to understand it more deeply and explored ways of working with it that resonated with my already established making practice.
The outcomes of this exploration are fragile, printed and draped porcelain gestures. They were created by brushing porcelain slip onto silk-screen printed linen fabric. The fabric was printed with minerals suspended in a silk-screen printing base. The imagery on the fabric mirrors the net like structure of the textile work. When the pieces are fired the fabric burns away in the kiln, leaving a trace of the image embedded within the porcelain.
[1] Hesse, Eva, et al. Eva Hesse : Studiowork. Fruitmarket Gallery, 2009.