For the fourth edition of LocalMilan curated by Emma Elizabeth in Milan Design Week, I collaborated on a textile art installation with artist and textile researcher, Joanna Fowles.
Utilising my linear graphic drawn artwork elements with Joannas extensive research and knowledge into locally sourced extracted botanical colourants, we created a series of art textiles with non polluting and non toxic dyes.
The organic Indian cotton, sourced from a country where both Kate and Joanna both have familial roots, is hand scoured and pressed, then hand silkscreen printed with extracted plant tannins from barks, fruit skins, naturally derived metal salts and fruit acids.
The process was done intuitively as the mordant which the dye adheres to is colourless.
The lengths are then dyed, dunged and finally washed to reveal their colours - an unexpected reveal.
The colour is alive - it evolves through time, light affectation and washing. It can be replenished, reinvigorated and recoloured.
Joanna’s research questions the contemporary applications of naturally dyed material and pushes to the return of naturally derived material and plants foraged from the local area. She utilises materials from plant and food matter to create colour into a print medium.
Kate’s artwork is a randomly repeated graphic element extracted from female form life drawing, which has gone through a transformation to a graphic lyrical and rhythmic line.
Elements overlap and fade; an interaction of bodies, relationships and nature.
