Description:

How can setting limitations in the design process create textiles that emphasise formal relationships between person, object and space?

Inspired by Minimalism, I have been exploring the creative potential of setting limitations through a rule based design process. What interested me here was how this approach could inform the design of a multi-dimensional series of textile works. To proceed with this investigation, I devised a system and set a strict instruction. With the intention to really exhaust the potential of the bare minimum, the simple instruction I set was:

Explore form through multiple dimensions using right angles.

Through in-depth research, experimentation and sampling, this limited approach has guided the development of a multi-dimensional series of uncategorised textile objects.

While I have captured this series in the form of an installation, the purpose and function of these varying uncategorised objects is intended to be determined by the setting and ultimately, the user/viewer. Some pieces suggest potential for functional use in an interior space, or they may perform simply as visuals. One is encouraged to interact with these pieces how they wish.

Starting with the floor piece, I created this by felting wool fibre into very dense sheets and manipulating the surface by drawing with the laser cutter. The laser has burnt the wool fibre and left behind a contrasting orange/brown coloured grid structure.

This grid translates through to the three dimensional acrylic box. The black acrylic panels reflect the grid and the transparent acrylic allows one to see through the structure.

Moving up to the tiles on the wall, I created these by felting wool fibre into small light-weight sheets and manipulating the surface by hand needle punching/wet felting the grid lines in. This elevated the grid structure slightly, pushing it to a level between the second and third dimension.

Then we move over to the four layered cube. This is made up of four foam layers covered in my very dense felt sheets. To manipulate this surface, again I needle punched/wet felted in the grid structure. Magnets have been placed within each layer which enables each piece to stack up with stability and unstack with ease.

Heading back up to the wall, displayed here are three prints. I created these by photographing the acrylic box, capturing the three dimensional form as well as the shadows/highlights it projected as I moved around and viewed it from different perspectives. I drew from this imagery using fine lines and solid fills to emphasise the three dimensional structure but in a two dimensional format. The final prints have been produced through burning each composition into cotton calico, using the laser cutter.

This modular series of uncategorised objects emphasises the great potential of the right angle. Each piece informs, translates, projects or reflects onto the next, forming a relationship between all involved elements - person, object and space.