Parallels

Barbara Rogers explores the diversity and language of this graphic pattern, the stripe.

Parallels will be an installation of contemporary textiles that explores the diversity and language of the stripe, the simplest of all patterns, yet a highly versatile tool for communication. Timeless, gender-neutral and appealing to all ages, stripes create maximum impact. As Pastoureau reminds us, the stripe is not “a natural mark but a cultural mark, one that man stamps on his environment, inscribes on objects and imposes on other men”[1]

Rogers’ cloths momentarily divert one’s attention away from the tangibility and tactility of the textiles to contemplate features such as colour, light and shadow, and open and closed structures.  The binary language of stripes is perfectly matched to the shibori technique – juxtaposing positive with negative, bound with unbound, dyed with plain, and historical with contemporary. Although stripes are often described as being of one plane, Roger’s masterful manipulation of cloth and dye explore the architectural possibilities of folding; of intersection and overlap; the analogies between pattern and language. In Parallels, Rogers uses her accumulated knowledge of numerous shibori techniques, together with experimental freedom, to push the possibilities towards its creative limits, urging the viewer to see, through cloth, with new eyes; building layers of colour and emphasising the strength behind the apparent fragility of a sheer silk.

[1] 1. Pastoureau, M, The Devil’s Cloth . A History of Stripes and Striped Fabric, 1991 page 89.

Taken from an article written by Julie Ryder for Textile Fibre Forum magazine

Vol 31:1, #105, 34-6

https://craftact.org.au/blogs/past-exhibitions-2012/parallels Review by Dr Sharon Peoples

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look@barometer.net.au