From Textile to Sculpture: Thread, Form and Space

My practice began with textiles, but over time I became increasingly interested in what happens when textile leaves the surface and enters space.

I work across textile, drawing and sculpture, using materials including thread, textile, wire, steel and concrete. I am interested in bringing together materials that might not traditionally be associated with one another, and in the tension that appears between them.

Softness and strength

A piece of textile can appear fragile.

Concrete does not.

But the apparent softness of textile can be misleading. Textile-making requires repetition, precision, patience and physical effort. Much of this labour can disappear behind the finished object.

Concrete, on the other hand, makes its physical presence immediately known. It has weight. It occupies space. It creates a sense of permanence.

When I place these materials together, I am interested in what happens to the assumptions we bring to them.

What happens when a material historically associated with women's work is given a sculptural presence alongside materials associated with a completely contrasting sphere?

What happens when the domestic and the industrial occupy the same space?

I am more interested in creating the tension between them and also reclaiming textiles as a material and transforming it into a medium to empower instead of silence.

From the domestic to the sculptural

For me, working with concrete and steel does not mean leaving textile behind. It means expanding what textile can become.

A stitch is a small gesture, repeated over time. A line can become a drawing, a drawing can become a structure, and a textile can begin to occupy an entire space.

This movement is important to my practice because it allows me to move between intimacy and monumentality.

The materials don't need to become the same. In fact, I am interested in keeping their differences visible, whilst also merging them. I find great interest in using textile techniques with materials not traditional used for textiles.

From the hand to the space

But my practice has gradually moved beyond the intimate scale of something held in the hands.

I became interested in how these gestures could become larger, how repetition could create structure, and how materials associated with domestic making could enter a sculptural space.

This is where textile and sculpture meet in my work.

And perhaps that is what interests me most: how something as small as a stitch can eventually become part of something that occupies an entire space.