Mixed Media Textile Art in Three Dimensions E-Book

Ann Goddard

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 113

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Fresh ideas and techniques for the rapidly evolving area of three-dimensional textiles. Leading textile artist Ann Goddard takes three-dimensional textiles to a new level in this practical book. Drawing inspiration from natural landscapes, organic material and a concern for the environment, Ann's work combines textile and non/textile elements with construction. Linen, loose fibres, paper and yarn are complemented by seemingly unlikely materials including concrete, wood, lead and bark. Fragile is juxtaposed with hard, natural with man-made, beauty with imperfection. The techniques range from stitching, wrapping, couching, and knotting to sawing, drilling, and casting. In this book, previously separate art media are combined to create eclectic works; boundaries are crossed, expectations challenged and categorisation rejected. Mixed Media Textile Art in Three Dimensions takes a linear look at the creative process from themes, research and experimentation through to preparing elements, conveying meaning and constructing three-dimensional forms, encouraging you to broaden your horizons in textile work. Brimming with beautiful artwork from the author and featuring the work of some inspiring and exciting artists creating three-dimensional constructions.

Leseprobe

Habitat series; one of four constructions; bark fragments, neoprene cord, copper wire (W38 × H56 × D20 cm / W15 × H22 × D8 in)

Contents

Introduction

Exploring themes

Conducting research

Experimenting with materials

Conveying meaning

Preparing the elements

Constructing a three-dimensional form

Conclusion

Glossary

Further reading

Index

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way

EDWARD DE BONO

Concrete, wood, lead and bark might seem unlikely materials to be included in a book aimed at textile artists, but these are just a few of the materials that I have incorporated into my textile art over the years. A friend described me as working with ‘extreme mixed media’.

Since I started learning how to embroider, the assumptions of what textile practice can be have changed radically. My own creative process has also evolved and grown over the years.

Working with mixed media challenges the traditional perception of textiles as a separate genre. This book will explore three-dimensional reliefs, assemblages and constructions that combine a variety of mixed media with textiles and/or textile techniques. It will give an insight into my own work, including where my inspiration comes from and how I interpret ideas through materials, and will show my approach to developing work from concept to outcome.

Using examples of my work, this book will guide you from theme and inspiration through to materials, tools, techniques, and finally to construction. It will also demonstrate how to add meaning to your art. By sharing my creative process I hope I can encourage you to incorporate unconventional methods into your work.

In addition to my pieces, the book features the work of some inspiring and exciting artists creating three-dimensional constructions. Their practice incorporates all manner of eclectic materials: ocean debris, litter, concrete, kelp, handmade paper, tacks, barbed wire, clay, plastics, metal, beach finds, toy soldiers and repurposed items. All combine textile elements or textile techniques with these materials.

The type of art that I make can be described broadly as follows:

• is three-dimensional

• is constructed

• features a wide range of materials

• uses textiles or textile analogues

• incorporates (often highly) contrasting materials

• features extensive incorporation of repetitive elements

• has strong structural elements

• uses materials to explore ideas

These criteria give me a huge range of possibilities for experimentation in my work, as you will see from the varied pieces included in this book.

I often refer to my own works as constructions rather than sculptures, as people tend to associate the term ‘sculpture’ with traditional wood carvings, stone carvings or bronze statues. Construction describes exactly what I do: I build up forms and surfaces by putting parts together.

My background

I originally studied art with a focus in ceramics while training to be a teacher, but after college found it difficult to carry on without access to a kiln. It was much later, when I was in my forties, that I discovered textiles as an art form.

Stumbling upon a City & Guilds creative embroidery course was a seminal experience for me which changed my life. I was immediately hooked. It was so exciting and different from the functional sewing I had experienced at school. It was a revelation to me that you could leave frayed edges and loose threads. Experimentation was encouraged, and the tutors were inspirational. It became obvious that there are no rights or wrongs in art, only possibilities, and the only limit to what is possible is our own imagination. Winning a City & Guilds Medal of Excellence motivated me to carry on.

Joining E2 (E Squared), a local textile group based on the Wirral, enabled me to become more involved with textiles and provided an opportunity to exhibit. It was inspiring to be part of a group of friendly, supportive and like-minded people.

A further course in stitched and constructed textiles followed. This encouraged combining textiles and stitch with materials and techniques from the other departments, including wood, glass, print, ceramics and metal. I was so excited by the visual juxtaposition of these materials: it was an epiphany.

Winning a Charles Henry Foyle Trust Award for Stitched and Constructed Textiles allowed me to take an MA in Fine Art, where the emphasis was on working with textiles in a fine art context. This provided me with knowledge of the wider art world, and how to select materials, processes and methods of construction to explore ideas and convey significance and meaning beyond the visual.

My hybrid practice

Using textile tradition as a starting point, my practice has expanded into one that can be described as hybrid. Previously separate art media are combined to create eclectic works; boundaries are crossed, merged and broken, challenging the expectations of what a textile is. Professor Polly Binns has described this type of practice as ‘exploding the category’. Textile artist Michael Brennand-Wood regards it as challenging ‘the boundaries of textile and craft approaches’.

Categorisation could be regarded as restricting possibilities. Artist Maggie Henton views categorisation as setting ‘false boundaries’ around her work and limiting ‘ways of seeing and interpreting it’. Author Laurie Britton Newell suggests that textiles ‘is not a separate category but an ingredient, a process, something that has enabled the making of idea into visible things’.

The further removed my own work becomes from the traditional definition of textiles, the harder it becomes to contextualise. Initially I found that this limited exhibition opportunities and it was something I often worried about. Now I realise my work exists forever on the margins of textile practice. By manipulating diverse materials, I have developed my own visual language and I am no longer concerned with categorisation – my work is what it is!

Small construction, an example of one of my first pieces combining mixed media; bleach printed fabric, wood, glass, tin and copper wire on wood base (W14 × H17 × D4 cm / W5½ × H6¾ × D1½ in)

I hope the book will appeal to anyone who is interested in alternative approaches to textile practice: those who have textile or embroidery experience and are keen to try something different; those who enjoy being experimental; anyone already working with mixed media and is curious about how others approach it; and those who are fascinated by three-dimensional artwork. I love the visual excitement that comes from juxtaposing different materials and the challenge of finding new ways to join them. I hope I can pass on some of my enthusiasm to you.

Penned In series (detail): slate, felted silk noil paper, sticks, threaded rods, wing nuts

Exploring themes

An artist is an explorer

HENRI MATISSE

Exploring a theme is an essential starting point for me. A theme provides inspiration and a focus for creativity. My pieces evolve from self-directed themes that are meaningful to me.

Two ongoing self-directed themes that I have explored thoroughly are ‘boundaries’ and ‘human impact on the environment’. Most of my work has evolved from these themes. I keep returning to them to explore the ideas in depth. As the theme grows, ideas tend to be refined. I find that revisiting often inspires different interpretations.

When I explore a theme, the artistic outcomes vary. I might create individual pieces, a piece made up of multiple modular units, or a series (several variations developed from the same aspect of the theme). The constructions developed from each of these ongoing themes are quite different. Those from the ‘boundaries’ theme are rigid, ordered and controlled; in contrast, those developed from the environmental theme show organic qualities.

The subsequent examples show how I explore a theme and offer suggestions of ways in which you could explore a theme.

Self-directed theme: boundaries

The theme of ‘boundaries’ came about as I tried to understand where my practice fitted in the art world. My style of working is difficult to categorise as it straddles boundaries between textiles and sculpture, and between fine art and craft.

When I was studying fine art, I became aware of the hierarchies between art and craft. I found it dismaying that textile art, with its connection to women and craft processes, was regarded as less worthy than traditional painting and sculpture. I wanted to understand why this should be.

I questioned the role of a boundary in different contexts, discovering that socially constructed boundaries and physical boundaries in the landscape have the same function: to define difference; to prevent intrusion from outside or straying from within; to restrict and control. I used these qualities to develop the following two works: Boundary Lines and Penned In.

Boundary Lines

This piece began from research into the concept of socially constructed boundaries.

Idea to use materials and methods of construction to reflect restriction and control

Hard materials planks of wood, slate, metal mesh, willow, nuts, bolts, screws, mending plates

Textile materials scrim, silk noil fibres, neoprene cord in different thicknesses, paper yarn

Techniques sawing wood, cutting slate, handmade silk paper, trapping

Boundary Lines consists of seven wall-hung units; each modular unit is similar but different. It has been exhibited in two different arrangements. In the first, the units were hung with spaces between them, suggesting fencing; in the second, the units were butted against each other, forming a barrier. The materials and processes used are intended to elicit possible associations and connotations. The fixings represent traditional masculinity and have been chosen to hold back the textile elements. The fabric, handmade paper, fibres and thread refer to stereotypes of women’s work or craft. Combining skills and materials from different disciplines was a deliberate choice to reject the notion of boundaries.

Boundary Lines; examples of the different materials and joining techniques

Penned In series; slate, wood, twigs, felted silk noil paper, threaded rods and wing nuts (W20 × H100 × D4 cm / W8 × H39¼ × D1½ in)

Penned In series

This series of three separate pieces also developed from research into boundaries. The concept behind them is influenced by the way that boundaries in the landscape are intended to both prevent intrusion from outside and straying from within, as a metaphor for the hierarchies in art.

Idea to use materials and methods of construction to reflect the restrictive and controlling nature of hedges and fences

Hard materials wood, slate, twigs, threaded steel rods, nuts and washers

Textile materials silk noils

Techniques sawing and burning wood, cutting slate, drilling wood and slate, handmade silk paper making

The slate references the slate fences found in North Wales not far from where I live, the twigs signify hedges, and the felted paper alludes to traditional textiles. The contrasting materials have been layered and clamped together to control and restrain the different elements. The juxtaposition of hard materials traditionally worked by men with textile suggests that boundaries are not immutable.

Self-directed theme: human impact on the environment

This theme evolved from a lifelong interest in nature. Like many artists, I have a broad collection of curious items picked up when out walking in woods or on beaches: pieces of wood, bark, stones and fossils that I keep for inspiration.

I happened upon a large quantity of bark when visiting a wood surgeon’s market garden. I was told it had come from an ancient yew tree, inadvertently killed during the construction of a housing development. And just like that a 500-year-old tree is lost along with a whole ecosystem relying on its existence. I was drawn to the colour, texture and shape of the bark pieces, and its age made it seem especially precious. I could not let it go to waste, so I recycled it by incorporating it into my artwork.

It was while researching the theme of human impact on the environment that I came across a quote from environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy: ‘Our lives and what we do affect Nature so closely that we cannot be separate from it.’ This seemed so relevant, especially regarding the reason behind the demise of the yew tree, and led me to develop a body of work investigating local and global ecological issues, including the destruction of habitats, extinction of species, and loss of biodiversity.

Vestiges; 30 small elements constructed from bark fragments, neoprene cord and copper wire. An example of creating a piece from multiple units (W150 × H100 × D6 cm / W59 × H39¼ × D2¼ in)

Discarded; 5 units, vintage cotton fishing net, driftwood, lead weights, fragments of rusted metal and wire (W25 × H90 × D20 cm / W9¾ × H35¼ × D8 in)

Vestiges

Vestiges are defined as traces or remnants of something that is disappearing or no longer exists. The yew bark fragments are examples of vestiges as they are the traces of a tree which no longer exists.

Idea to use manmade materials to combine the bark fragments to create new habitats

Materials a variety of different ‘found’ bark fragments, neoprene cord, copper wire

Techniques drilling, assembling, threading and knotting

Vestiges is an installation of thirty small assemblages constructed from fragments of bark. Some are pieces of the ancient yew bark, which are combined with a variety of different bark fragments found amongst undergrowth in local woods.

Symbiosis

At the same time that I collected the yew bark, I sourced a tall, vertical section from the trunk of a laburnum tree. I had no idea what I would do with it but I was drawn to the pattern of its grain.

While researching the theme of human impact on nature I noted the word ‘symbiosis’ and its meaning: ‘relationship between two different species that live close together and depend on each other in various ways.’ This evokes the relationship between nature and humans. The notion of symbiosis influenced the way I used the trunk to interpret the theme.

Idea to use textile materials to ‘mend’ the tree

Materials section of laburnum wood, plastic bottle fibres, neoprene cord

Techniques