jacques lawrence calver: textiles/mixed media

Biography

Investigating the ways in which textiles can evolve in close affinity with themes related to contemporary fine art, without the restraints of traditional practices and materials.

Through using a range of materials such as linen, cotton, silk, and jute, as well as re-purposed domestic fabrics, the works look to explore the aesthetic and functional properties of the materials.

The materials are exposed to a range of rigorous processes such as bleaching, dying, painting and staining, as well as a process of embroidery, stitching and sewing. It is through this strong object-hood that the work finds recurring themes, with the wide use of materials, tools and techniques, and diversity in the making process.

Many of the techniques make reference to historical modes of fabric production, such as African mudcloth, strip cloth, and Batik resist dying. There is also strong reference to Japanese folk art such as Boro textiles as a means of recycling or re-purposing materials.

My work constantly mediates between the material, and immaterial. Between concrete, tactile objects and their representations or ‘abstractions’ and as a result, the contents sits somewhere between abstraction and representation.