Research-Personal Specialism: Initial Project Work- Reviewing and Editing Work-Joanna Kinnersly-Taylor, Textile Artist and Designer

Joanna Kinnersly-Taylor is a printed textile artist and designer based within the WASPS Studios in Glasgow. Kinnersly-Taylor specialises in large-scale screen-printed art works using reactive dyes, discharge and devore. The focus of her imagery work revolves around the building up of multiple layers of shapes, line and texture overlaid with colour while also stripping away some of the colour with discharge to create unique and impactful results. The use of stencilling and painting by hand with the screens adds to the intricacy and complexity of the artwork. The imagery is abstracted, manipulated and magnified to create new ways of seeing and looking at the original source materials (textileartist.org). Kinnersly-Taylor uses natural fabrics including linen and wool to transform the surface of the cloth through screen-printing to illustrate how she sees and experiences the world immediately around her. From working on hand-dyed fabric Kinnersly-Taylor works with negative and positive space to create fine art printed textiles through collecting relevant experiencing by way of drawing, sketching, photographs and objects. From meticulous note taking connections and relationships are realised which relate to the initial observations made and feelings felt towards such experiencing. Detailed analysis and reflection through sketchbook work lead on to a series of experimentation with separation, composition and scale of the imagery using Photoshop before the screen-printing sampling process to explore layers and colour (Kinnersly-Taylor, 2012). The use of shapes as repeat imagery with textural mark-making and considered colour palette produced contemporary ways of illustrating what she sees and experiences.

From reviewing the earlier work including Tappet Wheels, the formica printed commission  and The Shape of Things  there seems to be a stronger emphasis on more clearly delineated overlaid shapes and a preciseness of line with sharper colour definitions which I prefer. The quality of the mark making with the overall executon resulted in striking and unique imagery. There has been considerable attention to detail with the placement of shape with areas of colour and line which has resulted in cohensive finished pieces. The more recent art works have increased the scale of detail which created textural qualities to the work.

Mapping from textile artwork influenced The Shape of Things to Come (2009) which related to personal journals, diaries and journeys made. This creative process and artwork acted as the impetus for new themes and ways of working especially with the use of writing and mapping out the generation and development of ideas to illustrate her own contemporary artistic narrative through printed textiles (textileartist.org).

In House Kinnersly-Taylor used her own domestic space with its room shapes, changing shadow and light from the windows coupled with envelopes to create repeating themes of daily life and experiencing. Through dyeing, layering and repeat an in-depth analysis of moments in time have been captured, remembered and re-experienced. In Resonance core themes of past and present mapped routes have been explored through shifting repeat patterns as a narrative of changing personal landscapes with detailed textural mark-marking. Kinnersly-Taylor experiments with different ideas and materials to illustrate core underlying themes of personal identity involving time, place, family and community. There is a strong sense of capturing personal experiencing, of evoking emotion through the colours, marks and lines used as if looking at old sepia photographs.

In Recast there is a continuing exploration of personal domestic space and the artists relationship with it using increased detailing around boundaries, junctions and intersections with meaning being built up through layering (The Crafts Council). Kinnersly-Taylor has brought printed textiles into the realm of contemporary fine art through using the medium as an expression of herself and her own experiencing, of conveying key themes of personal landscapes and journeys with the passage of time within her work, of examining core and relevant concepts within current human experience.  

In A Thread Runs Through It Kinnersly-Taylor reflected the immediate landscape around Airdrie for this commissioned series with reference to local industry past and present. Mark making evolved through use of relevant original sources and the overall composition amalgamated through colour, layering and spacing to produce a contemporary landscape of the area, to see it afresh and renewed.

As stated, the themes of plotted and mapped out routes continue to be used throughout the artist’s printed textile work. With Perpetual Mapping there is an increased sense of journey from within the person, of repeating imagery printed alongside singular map outlines and their placement created interactions. The domestic setting has been presented in ways that are relevant to current life and contemporary textile practice.

From reviewing the artists recent work including the Perpetual Mapping series and A Thread Runs Through it series Kinnersly-Taylor has used increased scale with one-off and repeat manipulated mark making to create areas of specific interest. Selections of foreground marks have been situated on a background of increasingly scaled up mark making with dynamic and contrasting colour palettes. The work is then held together through the placement of such imagery, the altered use of scale and textural qualities throughout the mark making.

Through reflecting upon the artists most recent work centred upon House, Resonance and Recast there seems to be a heightened focus towards increased detail where line has been softened and the colour palette simplified and reduced with black to highlight the textural elements of the marks made. The artists eye for detail and use of colour, line, shape and placement with texture has deeply influenced my own approach to screen printed textiles.