OCA Textiles 3: Personal Specialism Assignment Four- Response to Formative Tutor Feedback

Review Process of Textile Work Completed for Assignment 4

Continuing Themes include Larger Scale, Textural Qualities with Colour Palettes based upon Muted Natural Tones with a Bright Accent

From the tutor feedback received I continued to review all my textile work for assignment four from the personal specialism course. I was pleased with the feedback given as it always challenges me to go further, to extend my learning and creative practice. It was great to see how Lizzy had acknowledged the scale of work undertaken with repurposed materials of an inspirational journey exploring MDF, cardboard, paper, print, resist, imprinting-testing pressures, and integration of weave. More specifically my print work with newsprint was responded to favourably… that it was good to see such expressive depth and dimension within the newsprint experimentation. Of my capacity to capture sensitive transition of tone, translucency, fluidity, and linear qualities. I was particularly pleased to see how my relationship with the materials which underpins my creative practice and the context in which I work was picked up upon… of my increased ability to document my personal response when in relationship with such materials, to relate in ways which are led by the material and to make this known through recording contemporaneously in process.

I felt fully immersed in process which helped to create a range of different series of print on repurposed newsprint, sugar paper, rice paper, cardboard and MDF. I increasingly used the print to illustrate and communicate fracturing and fragmentation alongside altering form, to disrupt the surface of the material through print. I sought to create and disrupt the space the series of printed materials inhabited through distorting their shape. Such efforts were acknowledged by Lizzy, of my attempts to manipulate the materials to develop a stronger voice and enhanced capacity to say what I needed to say through screen printing and weaving on a wider selection of used materials.

I particularly enjoyed working on the MDF as it proved to be such an ideal material to print onto as a composite material made from waste. The printing inks penetrated deeply, their colours naturally dulled down and merged well on the surface of the MDF which resonated with the related environmental themes of imprints from the past. As suggested by Lizzy and considered by myself I plan to extend my work with MDF, to upscale considerably to develop this sculptural concept of installation made from MDF dependent upon the availability of appropriate materials. I aim to use different sheer paper types including newsprint, rice paper and tissue paper on the surface of the MDF to experiment with fracturing themes. Eszter Bornemisza and her work with recycled paper has continued to help me to forge ideas around pulled apart remnants of paper on different surfaces, to play with pressure and tension as well as Val Britton’s use of paper within monumental sculpture.

I also plan to continue to experiment with tapestry weaving, to incorporate weave. I did complete a range of loosely woven weave constructions around several printed cardboard pieces including reused black tarred marline rope, natural manila rope and grey hempex rope which were located at a local marina and chandlers. I enjoyed the process of experimentation with the different ropes to use as warp and weft to express core environmental themes of marine and coastal fragility, fragmentation, disintegration, and fraying. That said such creative practice and processes were not included within the learning log for assignment four as I felt they were still very much in process and this range of experimentation is continuing alongside print.  

Next, I aim to focus upon screen printing exceptionally large scale of using two 5-6 metre lengths of repurposed sheer muslin to encapsulate all the qualities I wish to convey and communicate. As stated in my previous learning log and blog entries through extensive sampling on muslin I have identified preferred colourways of dull yellow, grey-blue and a selection of greys which evoke memories of past experiencing on the sea and at the coast. Two sections of dyed sheer muslin will be focused upon to develop print on one layer and from that printing process to create imprints on the second underneath layer like faded memories over time which will envelop this sense of disappearance, fragmentation, fracturing and fragility. Like Cos Ahmet these dialogues with material take on their own symbolism and appearance, but are implicit presences, traces or imprints of identity and self. It is anticipated that a range of textures will be created through a series of different techniques and processes. In doing so I hope to further develop my relationship between print and weave through reused natural ropes as inspired by Sheila Hicks through her contemporary use of warp and weft and Susan Beallor-Snyder through her use of manila rope sculptures, to use rope loosely, to be led by a felt sense to create an added narrative and sense of space, shape, form and identity.

As recommended by my tutor I intend to continue to nurture this purely personalised and intimate connection to my materials and processes, to continue to record in process my thoughts and feelings to continue to increase my connections with making and research, intuition, unconscious skill and material-led investigation. I aim to develop further my creative practice with waste, of reusing and repurposing materials to fully integrate weave with print, to enable the creation of larger scale sculptural forms.  I aim to be more dynamic and expressive with my use of weave and stitch in relation to print, to continue to extend my use of materials including unravelling threads, disintegrating yarns, corroded rope and burnt rags to express more fracturing, disintegration, fragmentation and fragility within the woven material itself, beyond print.

In addition to my ongoing research enquires and influences I was struck by  the work of Mira Schendel and how she used materials to convey fragility  especially her series of Droguinha or Little Nothings (1964-66) which were made from twisted, knotted and braided delicate rice paper to elicit fleeting ethereal effects. I aim to use different paper types to help create woven appendages to print.

The tutor also suggested Isa Genzken with her use of materials and imagery to create complex, enigmatic towering sculptural works that range in media, including sculpture, painting, collage, drawing, film, and photography.

Using insubstantial commercial materials to depict what seems indestructible, Isa Genzken’s sculptures explore the tension between permanence and transience. Drawing on the legacies of Constructivism and Minimalism and often involving a critical dialogue with Modernist architecture, Genzken’s works comment on the way we build and destroy our environments, which are an expression of hope as well as a monument to our consumption and destructiveness.

Through reviewing others work including my own relationship with materials and prior sampling with MDF I can see the merit in developing the scale in which I work, to utilise MDF to create more sculptural work based upon monumental effort and size, to name environmental breakdown and destruction to elicit relating and responding concerning key marine and coastal concerns, to encourage a reaction.