This is another project from 2019 – I had more plans but life happened as usual – but anyway, I have some pretty textileworks to show from the remnants of my Anthropocene/CRACKS project which felt too good to waste. The theme is continued on them, but they are not patterns but one-off textile hangings.

There is 4 hangings, based on four „salvagable” jute pieces which I printed on digitally for the 2017 „Anthropocene” project. It is the continuation of the same theme too, decay and industrial ruins, rusty metals and fading memories.

As for the materials: as you may now if you’ve seen my Anthropocene portfolio, the problem with the jute was back then, that the dye did not fix over a certain area. I had tested, tested and tested, and whatever I did, it worked on a small piece and it did not, on any large piece. The way I saved it for the Masters project was to overpaint it since I used metallic pigments anyway and I ran out of creative energy. But so many test pieces remained and when I took them out again for a look, I realised I did not do one more thing: bleach and further destruction of the fibres, replacing them with metallic wire where I could, or even some metallic tiles I brought back from Amsterdam.

So there, below are my four resulting pieces. The image gallery does not allow captions, so I’ll try to explain the titles: the one with the X shape grid pattern is called „Harbour skipyard” and is inspired by Burntisland harbour and Dysart, and all these old linen ports which are now rusting away, still operating, but nowhere near in their former glory. The one with the golden tiles is called „Gentrified area” because it’s the most destroyed jute piece that I embellished on the surface but still frays away on parts. It reminds me of the ruin pubs of Budapest a bit and the other one with the tile pattern is also similar: the one with the tile patterns is called „Amsterdam cafe” and is inspired by these tiny inner city places that kept some of the tileworks inside intact but let time do their work on other parts. And the last one with the circular pattern is titled „Old postcards from India”, this one is not embroidered with any industrial coloured metal wires. I thought the circular pattern was oriental enough and I decided to go over it with Indian block prints with metallic pigments, it resulted in this faded, nostalgic, oriental effect. It also reminded me of those oriental rugs that are deliberately destroyed and sold in their aged state.

I hope you like them and if I get a chance to exhibit them any time soon, I will most definitely update.