Rozanne Hawksley, an artist who predominantly works in textiles and embroidery, had her first major solo exhibition at Ruthin Craft Centre recentely and we got to see the exhibition when it toured to the Mission Gallery in Swansea. On initial impact, her work seems very morbid with the use of bones and bandages, however, on closer inspection the amount of detail and the delicacy of the materials chosen could be argued to be very beautiful. We discover as she talks that her extraordinary art covers the great themes of life; love and loss, war and suffering, isolation and the abuse of power, by focusing in on intimate details of what they mean to a specific individual.
"I am drawn to the secret, the allegory, a meaning often hidden, secret ritual, that behind the facade. I work with those materials and those only that are necessary to my emotional thought process...with those that impel me to select them, whatever they may be. Very often I have little or no knowledge of the working of non textile components - exciting but frustrating in that it can take so long to achieve my aim." - Rozanne Hawksley.
Her installations combine poignant materials - a faded glove, a lily, a photograph or fragment of chiffon to make a powerful, reflective point. Many of her pieces contain a glove, representing the individual and also reflecting times when gloves were given out at funerals - black for servants and white for the upper class.
'Et ne non inducas (And lead us not)' 1987-1989
The exhibition 'Offerings' that we visited dealt with major themes that affect everyone; it was an unparalleled chance to see the thought-provoking yet unnervingly beautiful work of this remarkable artist.
"I am drawn to the secret, the allegory, a meaning often hidden, secret ritual, that behind the facade. I work with those materials and those only that are necessary to my emotional thought process...with those that impel me to select them, whatever they may be. Very often I have little or no knowledge of the working of non textile components - exciting but frustrating in that it can take so long to achieve my aim." - Rozanne Hawksley.
Her installations combine poignant materials - a faded glove, a lily, a photograph or fragment of chiffon to make a powerful, reflective point. Many of her pieces contain a glove, representing the individual and also reflecting times when gloves were given out at funerals - black for servants and white for the upper class.
'Et ne non inducas (And lead us not)' 1987-1989
The exhibition 'Offerings' that we visited dealt with major themes that affect everyone; it was an unparalleled chance to see the thought-provoking yet unnervingly beautiful work of this remarkable artist.
Although I didn't come away from this exhibition with much to relate to the Warm Weaves project, it did inspire me with my own professional pathway for the future. I have always had an ambition to set up my own individual exhibition one day and show the journey I have gone through within design. Rozanne's beautiful website is a great inspiration and I have a strong aim to produce my own.
(Images obtained from www.rozannehawksley.com)
(Images obtained from www.rozannehawksley.com)
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