MARIAN BIJLENGA and ISABEL LECAROS

Showcasing the work of two makers this exhibition focuses on the craft of weaving, the weaving of natural materials. Exploring space, pattern and colour to push the boundaries of this tradition.

Chilian artist Isabel Lecaros focuses on the expertise and knowledge of craft practices throughout Chile. The work for this exhibition focuses on the craft of weaving with horsehair, also known as Crin, that dates back at least three centuries and is unique to Rari - a rural village in the Maule region of Southern Chile.

She has collaborated with ten local craftswomen of Rari, women who have passed the technique down through generations. The delicate weaving of natural or dyed horsehair creating colourful patterns or figures.

The collection produced in this collaboration represents both tradition and progress. It aims to promote and encourage the use of Chile’s most emblematic folk craft within new ventures, sustaining a local natural resource.

Marian Bijlenga creates wall sculptures from delicately worked elements of horse hair, viscose, paper, glass and fish scales, using a technique that she developed herself while studying at the Rietveld Art Academy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

“I am fascinated by dots, lines and contours, by their rhythmical movements but also by the empty space they confine. Instead of drawing on paper, I draw in space by using textile as a material. I work with thread, fabric and horsehair, materials that are soft, light, flexible and open to endless development. The suppleness of textiles gives me the greatest possible freedom to achieve my goal: the discovery of new forms.

Leaving space between the structure and the wall the object is freed from its background and interacts with the white wall. It becomes what I call a ‘Spatial Drawing’.”