REVIEW - Between Science and Art
On Tuesday September 11th Catharine Ellis and Joy Boutrup presented: Between Science and Art: Collaboration in Textiles. The sold out lecture kicked off the 2018 season for the Maiwa School of Textiles.
The audience were treated to a wide ranging talk that included fibre engineering, weaving, dyeing, shaped resist and fibre art. Both Joy and Catharine are well established figures in the textile community it was a delight to have both of them on the stage at the same time. The subjects bounced back and forth between both speakers often with equal quantities of humour and insight. The audience were left with a beautiful contrast between two vital approaches to working with textiles.
The lecture was introduced by Tim McLaughlin:
We all love textiles - we love making them, finding them, using them.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that we feel close to our favourites. We spend a great deal of time with them. When we can’ find a favourite we get anxious. They are like children to us - they need us to look after them and we need them to feel that warm intimate sense of satisfaction.
Let us agree for a moment that it is almost as if they are alive. Let us say that when we make them we give them birth, and then as we use them they live out their life. … But after that what happens?
Following my analogy, what happens to some fortunate ones is they get an afterlife. The afterlife is to reside in heaven - a museum, a textile collection, or an institution which can restore and conserve them.
As someone who studies textiles I have tremendous respect for conservation departments. They are often the source of detailed research into dyes, fibres, techniques and history. And because they are often associated with public institutions the results of that research often flows quite freely down to people like myself, who have an a deep interest in all these things.
Tonight we have two gifted individuals from each side of the life of textiles. We have Joy Boutrup who has a background in textile engineering, has spent considerable time in conservation departments and who is a specialist in textile chemistry. Her services have benefited textile and fashion designers at two design schools in Denmark and she has taught at the school of conservation in Copenhagen. She is a consultant, lecturer, teacher and as we will see tonight, a collaborator.
Catherine Ellis, is a weaver, dyer, author and artist who has spent most of her life giving birth to textiles and encouraging others to do the same. She is a kind of textile midwife.
Catherine has taught at the Penland School, at Haywood Community College, she has exhibited throughout America, and is preparing an exhibition for Australia, she is actively involved in the Surface Design Association, the World Shibori Network, and she is a founding member of the Southeastern Fiber Educators Association.
Catherine is the author of Woven Shibori first published in 2005 (a revised updated edition was published in 2016). Catherine and Joy are also co-authors in a soon to be released book titled:
The Art and Science of Natural Dyes: Principles, Experiments and Results.
Please join me in welcoming Joy and Catherine
See all REVIEWS on the Maiwa Blog.
0 comments
We moderate comments to keep posts on-topic, avoid spam, and inappropriate language. Comments should appear within 24 hours.