MEMOR
07 Memor MA RCA 2023
Statement
Mindful-Remembering-Unforgetting-Commemorative
The core of my work is to convey a sense of awe one may feel when witnessing natural phenomena (that of memory as metaphor), intersecting with the day-to-day life. The beauty in the tension, weaving to convey this duality.
This project takes a philosophical concept challenging the restlessness that exists in memory.
I have fabricated a sensitive, holistic collection, each piece explores a different narrative, from the material, technical process to the structure from weaving. Each is an individual piece, yet they all speak a similar language. They materialise the immaterial, the fragmented.
My intentions for the textile collection are to convey a conversation between the permanent and the impermanent, the despair and comfort, and the many layers gathered of memory collections.
The pieces communicate the research and sensations through tactility and construction, becoming stories of an instinctual nature where the occasional twist and turns of the weft bring emotions, questions and perhaps understanding to the surface.
Material Narratives
This project began during the wet, moody wither I foraged for materials, harvested flax, roots of dead plants, peeling away bark, nettle, stems and leaves.
I noticed that the materials changed from their collected state into more brittle surfaces when I had left them alone for several days. I further distorted them; twisting, plying, and spinning, connecting with the rawness and dried substance, passing through my fingers, transitioning between conditions.
I questioned whether the materials stories embodied through textile could be made visible? Focusing on the imperfections that can be celebrated in in this matter, this involved experimental compositions that created space for a dialogue between; what the material once was and how it can be preserved, transformed, or re-designed though technical structures. This thereby aims to extend the narrative, contextualising the philosophy.
Pampas Grass Material Qualities
Allowing these to encapsulate and lead the design. The structural properties it adds, for embellishment or add form through composition. This highlights the technical process and discovery of the materials possibilities. This brings the material to the forefront of the design. Allowing these not only to act as inspiration but further encapsulate themselves within the sample.
Traces
These abstractions tell stories of their material lives; the falx breaking and processing itself or the roots disintegrating. The person who wears them alters the design overtime. An everchanging textile, the memory of the material and the person become one, creating a new encounter with the material and its memory moving forward.
Using these foraged materials that do not necessarily have a clear function, integrating something that through being worn will change. These pieces therefore offer further development with this abstract medium and simultaneously conceptual samples can be commercial as inspirations. Pushing textiles in new constructive directions developing through adding wires and other materials that lend themselves to these industrial processes to give a similar theme.
Storytelling Accessories
These bobbins once had a formal purpose for weave and lace making, now they have become these conceptual commodities that could be used as a fastening, pin or brooch. Storytelling Accessories, they are the by-product of the making and become things themselves, if we are prepared to read and listen to them
Initial designs
To incorporate the designs into my desired context I collaborated with MA RCA Fashion Student Hannah Cooper.
Our collaboration was focused on the material properties. Our vision for bespoke lies in the individualisation of processes and hand craft techniques. The collaboration gave an insight into working with a fashion designer, understanding the way a pattern is produced and how one might construct a garment by engineering the design through weave.
Handwoven fabric designed for Spring/Summer 2024
The jacket is made from 5 meter's of handwoven wool/linen cloth with sections of pampas grass adding structure to oppose conventional tailoring methods. Tailored and constructed into ready to wear fashion garment.