CONTEXTILE 2022 - Contemporary Textile Art Biennial, Portugal
International Exhibition - Palacio Vila Flor
ARTIST STATMENT
In seeking to manifest the aliveness of material through intra-active phenomena, this work upholds material as a conceptual notion in itself. Originally harvested and installed in the Auckland Botanic Gardens (New Zealand), the fibre holds traces of time, place and durational methods of making.
Long, freshly cut leaf blades of harakeke, or New Zealand flax, are transformed into silky strands of fibre, seamlessly attached to a percussion-like tube. A simple twining method weaves together the suspended strands allowing them to freely intra-act with atmospheric conditions such as wind, light and gravitational forces. Moving with an autonomous agency, suspended strands dance and sway, as lively in death as in life.
Intrinsically ephemeral, the material allows the re-making into a new form. Its gentle movement evidences the nature of a woven universe bound together through material entanglement. Reflecting how each small daily action forms an intrinsic part of the world's ongoing creation and re-creation.
International Exhibition - Palacio Vila Flor
ARTIST STATMENT
In seeking to manifest the aliveness of material through intra-active phenomena, this work upholds material as a conceptual notion in itself. Originally harvested and installed in the Auckland Botanic Gardens (New Zealand), the fibre holds traces of time, place and durational methods of making.
Long, freshly cut leaf blades of harakeke, or New Zealand flax, are transformed into silky strands of fibre, seamlessly attached to a percussion-like tube. A simple twining method weaves together the suspended strands allowing them to freely intra-act with atmospheric conditions such as wind, light and gravitational forces. Moving with an autonomous agency, suspended strands dance and sway, as lively in death as in life.
Intrinsically ephemeral, the material allows the re-making into a new form. Its gentle movement evidences the nature of a woven universe bound together through material entanglement. Reflecting how each small daily action forms an intrinsic part of the world's ongoing creation and re-creation.