Ismini Samanidou & Gary Allson

CNC drawing derived from woven structures



CNC milled wood

Jacquard woven fabric



CNC drawing derived from woven structures





CNC drawing derived from woven structures
This particular drawing makes my heart skip a beat - I love it!

 

Jacquard woven fabric



CNC milled wood

CNC milled wood

CNC milled wood

Jacquard woven fabric

Jacquard woven fabric

In last years warp+weft exhibition that I curated for Oriel Myrddin Gallery, I was really excited to present the beginnings of a new body of work by jacquard weaver Ismini Samanidou in collaboration with Gary Allson. The work was a new exploration into digital mark making and CNC milled wood surfaces derived from woven fabrics. The samples were extremely well received and has left many waiting for the 'what next'. Well today I received an email from Ismini letting me know about a very exciting new exhibition entitled Craft Code for which she and Gary have created a new body of work that builds upon the warp+weft exhibits. Above are some images of the work you can see in the show which is at the Wills Lane Gallery in St Ives, Cornwall from the 11th Sept until the 30th October.  Having seen these photographs I'm super-curious to see the work in the flesh...... gonna have to figure out how I can squeeze a Cornwall trip in the coming weeks!  

Below is the text relating to their work from the exhibition catalogue published by the gallery:

Cornwall based Gary Allson trained at Wimbledon School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London graduating in 2001. Whilst at the RCA Allson specialised in design products. For a number of years Gary worked in industry including Raffo Design Associates and Habitat. His research interests and practice involve the use of digital production and cross discipline collaborations. Gary combines his practice with teaching at University College Falmouthprimary material is timber and through the use of hand processes he develops explorative surfaces and forms that are both functional and ornamental. Gary Allson regularly exhibits at the Crafts Council’s ‘Origin’.

Ismini Samanidou trained at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, London specialising in weaving. Her practice involves designing and making textiles for exhibitions, commissions and collaborations focusing on the use of digital weaving technology. Ismini has travelled and researched textile techniques worldwide, most recently spending 9 weeks in Bangladesh as an artist in residence with the British Council’s New Silk Road project. In 2004 she was awarded the Crafts Council’s Next Move residency, in 2006 she received the Crafts Council Development Award and in 2009 was jointly given the Jerwood Contemporary Makers award for Timeline – a large scale textile installation. Public collections include: The Worshipful Company of Weavers (permanent textile collection at V&A), National Grid Transco, Central Saint Martins’ Archive.

The work is developed through an interdisciplinary collaboration exploring the relationship between weaving, milling and drawing. The three processes are linked by digital making technologies, methods of manipulating information where computer data is transferred from one object to another. This invisible information is visible in the surface of the made objects and the pieces are exhibited as a connected sequence. Surface is the key focus for the 3 different materials: wood, paper and weaving. It is the common qualities of these materials and their relationship with each other that form the basis for this body of work.

Tonal variation, grain pattern, and surface qualities of the timber contribute uncontrolled, and to a large extent uncontrollable organic elements. Timber as a material, changes form and size due to differing densities within, and to different environmental conditions. It continues to change through its life, all un-prescribed properties. This stands in contrast to the nature of the controlled digitally cut surface which is an ‘out put’ of a set of numerical instructions with stable, known accuracy.

The textiles are woven on a computerised jacquard loom using cotton, paper, silk and linen. The mechanical nature of the loom aimed at producing defined and controllable textiles is used by Ismini to make intuitive decisions responding to tensions in the yarns, the density of the warp and weft, and the nature of the materials and structures selected. Working with 2D and 3D digital techniques, the drawings are made substituting milling tools with pens and brushes on the digital router. This combines an interest in traditional mark making and the pathway of digital information.