Working with humble materials such as the sisal fibre and refuse synthetic fibre orients my attention to the way we relate to matter. I’m interested in considering how useful these everyday materials are and yet how easily we overlook them. In doing so, something is broken in the way we connect to them. Something precious is lost. 

To me the artist’s role is to create and maintain an ever-changing relation to the material world by exploring all the facets and allow it to yield its full potential. Stripping these fibres of their useful connotations provides a new setting for the fresh to unfold. In this creative space a renewed image of the material comes to the foreground and, at the same time, an unexpected bond.

My inspiration stems from the desire to rescue these materials from oblivion, from the narrow, purely useful viewpoint.  While acknowledging their contribution to our well-being, wrapping string and discarded produce bags are the stuff of my personal expression. As I wind and unwind the sisal string and heat and cool the synthetic fibre I get involved in the organic process of becoming. From this intimate contact an energy springs forth where, unbeknown to me, a new identity emerges. In crafting these materials, I find myself being crafted. There’s a flow between the “I” and the “other”. The bond is restored, and perhaps, this is where Beauty lies.

Andie.