Strands of words and fibre woven together
Defying convention with materials -organic, fibrous, even pages of books- Justine Randall and Thurle Wright follow traditional weaving patterns and techniques alongside layering, knotting and intertwining to create powerful tapestries.
From her formation in textiles, Justine Randall’s work celebrates the environment and highlights the transformations endured by landscape. Through intricate textures and different weights of yarn, her weaves mediate the changes in seasons, light and colour, reflecting back on our ways of interacting with our world in times of climate change. For Entwined, Justine has produced a number of woven tapestries inspired by the landscape surrounding her, fields of crops, furrows of turf, uneven ground; all rendered in woven tapestry using paper, flax, nettle yarn, jute and marlin (tarred flax), concentrating on the beauty of symmetry as well as the rugged and unkempt nature of the British countryside. “I use yarn like a painter uses paint or a sculptor uses wood or metal”, says Justine who studied textiles at West Surrey College of Art & Design and then tapestry in the painting school at the Royal College of Art. This painterly approach to her work can be admired in her large tapestries conveying the colours of the sky at night which have recently been exhibited at Roche Court Sculpture Park.
Before specialising in visual arts, Thurle Wright navigated the world of language. Her practice revolves around the printed word, reclaiming pages from a plethora of text materials including the Bible, classic literature and dictionaries to create her intricate paper weavings. She meticulously cuts, folds, and recrafts texts, deconstructing their original purpose to reimagine them in her own style. The text remains readable in her pieces, yet is separated from their original contexts, transforming them into complex paper sculptures. Pages from The Odyssey, The Waves, A Room of One’s Own, Pride and Prejudice, Little Women form part of the works for Entwined. Shells, stones and seeds collected near her Folkestone studio are often woven into the works connecting language to landscape and story to place. Together with the texts, these gathered materials form a kind of personal fabric, shaped by memory, reading and lived experience. Thurle was born in Zimbabwe and now resides in Kent. She initially studied modern languages and literature before specialising in visual art and achieving her Degree in Textiles from Goldsmiths College.
The extents of tapestry and the dialogue between these artists invite the viewer to explore the encounters of language and nature.
jaggedart is open Tuesday to Friday | 11 am – 5 pm.
Other times by appointment