As an emerging artist I am inspired and driven by brutalist architecture, the Irish landscape including rural and urban, gentrification and inner city communities. These topics relate to the themes of identity, heritage and home.
Brutalist architecture is a style of architecture that first emerged in the 1930’s in the UK. It was developed among the reconstruction projects of the post war era. It then became increasingly widespread across European communist countries. It has always had the representation of being ugly, dull and depressing. I study the brutalism inspired aesthetic seen around Dublin city and how the communities, homes and culture around Dublin have been destroyed and swamped by gentrification, wealthy corporations and modern architecture developers. This has caused a crisis within the city where people feel their culture and the place they call home is being torn away from them.
Growing up in a generation with such economic, political and social change I explore how our urban landscape and our surrounding environment rapidly develops and adapts to these changes. The young generation are using their voice more than ever before to vocalise their opinion and stand up for change. I intend to use my ‘voice’ through art and textiles.
I have a strong interest in design so when I attended the Design Bureau placement last year it gave me the opportunity to develop my design portfolio and skills, an area I ultimately see myself moving forward to.
I learned design techniques, processes and outlooks that I then adapted into my own practice.
I was also influenced during the percentage for arts project and my thesis where I dealt with the topic of gentrification in my local area. This then led my practice to be motivated by urban landscapes and architecture.
Through processes such as hand and machine knitting, CAD as well as quilting I explore my themes in an effective way.
My starting point was gathering research through photography and drawing including mark making and blind drawing. I was drawn to architectural structures and harsh geometric shapes and structures, rough textures and straight lines. Most of my photography research came from brutalist inspried architecture.
Following on from this, I then began experimenting with hand knitting and machine knitting. By exploring different techniques I tried to imitate the feature of brutalism-harsh and rough surfaces, geometric and unusual shapes and exposed concrete finish through the soft features of knit.
I think it effectively portrays the grid and geometric shapes of brutalist architecture in a more delicate and softer way. By using lace techniques and various other knitting techniques I was able to achieve this aesthetic successfully.
From here, I started working into the knits with rope and rubber to add the industrial and urban element to the delicate knit samples, creating a contrast.
It is important to me to create that contrast between the hard materials used in architecture and the soft materials used in textiles, to find the beauty in something considered ugly. My aim is to combine the two in an effective way. Using knit as my main medium as I feel a sense of connection to it by the practice being passed down through generations of my family and textiles being a symbol of femininity, I create a contrast by combining it with masculine considered industrial materials such as rope and rubber.
By repurposing and upcycling leftover hard industrial materials it includes the important aspect of sustainability in my practice. I believe it is an essential practice for the future of the textile industry. To me, sustainability isn’t only about using eco-friendly materials - it is the importance of creating long-wearing, durable and timeless pieces to help sustain the life cycle of garments. In doing so, it minimises the carbon footprint of the industry.
During this process I was heavily inspired by Robyn Lynch and Mairead Wall.
I was influenced by how Lynch combines traditional arran cable knit techniques with contemporary urban streetwear.
Wall’s variety of different knit techniques and presented in a contemporary way was influenced in my practice.
By creating samples and colour stories from my photographic research I achieve my final outcome in a structural and architectural form engineered and presented on the body.
