The Fabric of Our Lives – Part 2
In the years following World War II, designers and artists drew ideas and inspiration from global sources – India, the Middle East, and China. They mined history and began using amongst other themes, botanical imagery, repetition, bold colour, and diverse lifestyles, such as the Victorian dandy; thus by the early 1960’s ‘flower power’ was in full bloom and in fashion.
Such buoyant styles elevated textile design to new heights, lifted public spirits, and transformed artistic experiences. Fine artists working in textile were now emboldened to take these forms from flat to fabulous sculptural shapes that would carry their own significant ideas and stories.
A House of Chloe designed “sheltersuit” coat by Gabriela Hearst speaks to issues around
safety, warmth, transience, functionality, and homelessness. Consider the multiple uses of various fabrics with divergent patterns.
Gabriela Hearst, Parka and Sheltersuit, 2021
South Korean Artist Do Ho Suh began experimenting with sculpture and installation while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design, he then went on to Yale, where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture in 1997. Major themes in his work are notions of home,
architecture, globalization, and place. Using textile the way a master carpenter might wield wood, Suh began to present homes that were made out of sheer silk, transparent houses that could be folded up and packed in a suitcase. Perhaps what makes these homes surreal is the
fabric, what makes them believable is their sheer scale.
Do Ho Suh, Home within Home within Home within Home within Home within Home, 2013
Self-taught Jamaican-Canadian artist Tau Lewis creates dynamic sculptural works by hand sewing, carving, and assemblage; Lewis transforms found objects into portraits of friends and imagined ancestors. Using found objects Lewis draws from a rich history of African resourcefulness to create works that inspire personal and collective healing. Formerly based in
Toronto Lewis now works in Brooklyn.
Tau Lewis, Opus (The Ovule), 2020
Transforming fabric into flesh, Tamara Kostianovsky fuses cruelty and beauty; the Argentine- American artist is perhaps best known for carnal sculptures of faux bone and flesh made from patterned fabric scraps. These pieces installed in gallery spaces create a sense of theatricality
that wavers between beauty and barbarism. “I see these works in terms of metamorphosis,” Kostianovsky says.
Kostianovsky has formed sutures where butchers would make cuts, she takes apart
her wardrobe as well as sourcing women’s clothing from various areas. This
Tamara Kostianovsky, Mesmerizing Flesh, installation view, 2023,
connection to the feminine is a way in which the artist grapples with and displays the brutality that is committed against women globally, especially in Argentina.
These artists, and so many other contemporary textile artists, remind us that
although fabric plays a central role in our lives, we take this fact for granted. By
elevating fabric and materiality to present universal themes, these artworks move us
beyond the banality of fabric, forcing us to acknowledge its powerful place in our
existence.
