Faculty of Design

Material Art & Design

Anne Wallace

Human Frailty: A Material Metaphor

textile and wire mesh sculptures depicting how the body fails and betrays the person within

“These sculptural forms, referencing torso shapes, represent the body as a worn out garment. The paradox of human frailty is how strong and protective, yet vulnerable, the body is. Ultimately it becomes like a hollow shell where the spirit, or self, no longer resides. At a certain age, family members, friends and ourselves start to die or experience illness, for which the artworks are a material metaphor created from natural fibres, rust and natural dyes, framed and supported by rusting metal. The indigo colour, under- or overdyed with rust, madder and cochineal, evoke bruising, veins or a black eye. Mark making, in the form of stitching on the `skin’, suggests a code or language following the surface design. Just as our bodies return to earth, the forms’ construction and materials allow the wire mesh to be recycled and the cotton and silk to be reclaimed and re-purposed. Photography Andrew E Gibbs @agibbs1994”