fabric(s)

why calico/canvas fabric?

I think that deciding which fabric to choose to experiment with is important and what’s it’s relevance or associations are with the theme.

I’ve decided that for now on a more personal reason, calico fabric is accessible and affordable for the time being. But also, when I’m thinking about fear and what we do or use to escape it, almost child like, we resort to something that comforts us, and so taking the idea of a comfort object to shield us almost from our fears. In this case, a blanket, cushion or teddy etc. And so that’s why I wanted to use fabric to begin with.

However, calico fabric isn’t the most comfortable of all fabrics that I could choose from. But in a sense, that works in my favour. I’m using calico because of it’s qualities and not only because of it’s value. No matter how soft the fabric is, it wont rid the fear off completely, it’s only used as a comfort mechanism, and knowing that, doesn’t make the comfort object completely comforting.

In another sense, calico is a material used to cover over with other material or mediums such as gesso and paint, so having the fabric in its raw form and off-white colour gives the work what I like to thinks as a reality in a sense. And fear exposes a reality of sorts to us that we would like to avoid from facing and being exposed to. The pieces I’ve created so far with the fabric are not for it to only look pretty and visually pleasing itself, but to also help us recognise a reality of ourselves and be able to reflect.

My last reason would be that even though the portrait I’ve made seems aesthetic, using aesthetics is another way for people to be able to hide away, or express themselves. So the work I have produced might get several different views on the possibility of what it stands for or what it’s message is trying to get across.