Term 4, Week 1: Deborah Crowe and Filipe Tohi

 Deborah Crowe's preferred style and medium is hard to define.By trade she is a qualified weaver, having graduated in weaving/textiles. But the material she uses for her works vary, from nylon and string to industrial type surfaces and materials such as mirrors, glass and metal.  They are also presented in many different ways – in photographic prints, installations and collaborative moving image pieces. Not only does she like to regenerate and reconfigure these materials for other works, she does this with her concepts as well, some ideas may carry on from one work to another. Her work sits between different mediums, she said that not only is it an advantage because it allows her to be different, but it's also a disadvantage because people are unsure of her style because it's constantly changing. This is due to her fascination with space, pattern and construction (architecture, scaffolding, etc.) Cantilever is a word that Deborah brought up a lot during her discussion, it's a term used in building where a panel for example, is joined and supported by one point (or two) only. This relates to how she responds to different structures and how she interprets this into her own work, whether it be sitting under bridges or watching movies and theater productions that focuses on construction/architecture that has been manipulated in some way. In terms of space, she recalls how as a child, her sister used to lock her in the closet . Years later, she nicknamed her work space, "Paradise Prison," since the garage that she was occupying was surrounded by a serene, picturesque garden. Space plays a major role in how she creates her work, she is interested in how we experience the space around us and how we control our bodies in this space.
She has also applied this along with her weaving talents to other areas in the creative field, including fashion design, which she has won awards and made television appearances for. Again, the main inspiration was how we control the body, how we as women are willing to go the extra mile to look good, by sacrificing our own comfort. The clothes that were designed and created do look uncomfortable, they range from very stiff looking headdresses to corset-styled dresses. A model who worked with Deborah Crowe and her collaborating designer friend, Kim Fraser was asked by television personality, Mary Lambie if what she was modelling felt uncomfortable, which the answer to her surprise was "no." Comfort is something that I'm guessing Deborah took into consideration while creating these pieces, as she is interested more in how a structure is built, not the decorative effects.  
The overall effect of her works gives this optical illusion, her work with line plays a trick on the viewer's eyes but it's very clever how she has managed to construct these works from many different kinds of materials. The diversity in her materials also gives her an advantage when playing with light and shadow.

"Shig," Deborah Crowe

We went to Mangere Arts Centre where we saw sculptures created by artist, Filipe Tohi. The cultural context was that of Tongan, with his art practice focusing mainly on an ancient Pacific Island artform by the name of lalava (lashing - patterns) his main medium of choice being stone but there were also a couple of works I saw where he had combined wood and steel. He believes that lalava is a prominent part of his culture because of the memories and historical values, so he decided he would carry this on throughout his own work but presented in his chosen medium: sculpture. He attracts the viewer by changing the composition of these national treasures, this way he could "manipulate space and pattern." The similarities I noticed between his and Deborah's work was the consideration of space and the intersecting of lines to create these abstract patterns. They don't appear to be grounded to just one medium and there is a wide variety of materials used in their works. They both manipulate their surfaces and produce different quantities of light, by buffing or building up on different layers (like Filipe's stone sculpture, "Mata Tangaroa," for example) and incorporating the different media to show different textures and a change in pattern. Just like Deborah's work, the lalava patterns also has that optical illusion effect, you can see how Filipe has deconstructed the traditional pattern of lalava and added his own twist to it by changing the levels and dimensions.

Filipe Tohi (traditional lalava)

"Mata Tangaroa," Filipe Tohi. (Rock sculpture, 2002)

Clapham house (in London, England) is a good example of line and pattern being incorporated into an architectural design. It reminds me of when Deborah was talking about how her work for the 2005 exhibition, "Reconstruct" was focused mainly on line and how she wanted to achieve this moire look with each piece. She said it would somehow mess with the viewer's head and make them "develop a form of psychosis" The interior of this house is also quite a strange set up and I like how the line continues onto the wall and forms this wavy pattern, it definitely makes you think twice about whether or not this pattern is a part of the decorative design or a part of the architecture.

Clapham House, London, England

 The Aragon Pavilion (designed by Olano and Mendo Architects, Spain) also shows a great understanding of weaving through architecture and how using hard materials with different surfaces can project different qualities of light. I can also see what Deborah Crowe means when she said for us to have a look at the construction and the pattern of a building and see if we can imagine it being broken down and viewed as cloth/fabric.

Aragon Pavillion, Spain

Links
Filipe Tohi
http://www.tautai.org/sopolemalama-filipe-tohi/
http://www.lalava.net/nav.html
Clapham House, London
http://www.wallpaper.com/gallery/architecture/clapham-house-london-by-atmos-studio/17052623#50054
Aragon Pavilion
http://maisdcharlottes.blogspot.com/2010/06/aragon-pavilion.html