Woven linen, cotton, silk and paper on linen in purple heart wood frame
64.5 x 63.5 （厘米）
25.4 x 25.0 （吋）
The design of Tonico Lemos Auad's new textiles at Frieze London 2019 are loosely inspired by Derek Jarman's iconic coastal garden at Prospect Cottage in Dungeness. Evoking a psychedelic, cinematic state of mind, Jarman's borderless and roughhewn garden spreads all the way to the distant horizon where sky, sea and shingle meet as one. Such limitless vistas and desert-like colours feature in Auad's work, with architectural forms and distinct borderlines demarcating open areas of woven textile.
Auad combines a variety of different techniques to make his textiles including knitting, crochet, needle work and weaving. In addition, Auad employs diverse types of yarn: silk, wool, linen, cotton, paper and natural fibres. Working on several works at a time, the genesis of each composition is entirely intuitive. In ‘Vitamin T' (2019), George Vasey (Curator at Wellcome Collection, London) writes that Auad demonstrates an "emotional acuity with his use of colour and material... While his work is often laboriously constructed, there is a refreshing simplicity in the way it looks, reminding us of the potential of the human hand." Auad's works are defined by the process of their making, slowly revealing each individual stitch, crocheted loop and interwoven thread.
