Silk Shades, Slubbed

Between five and eight free-standing, large scale constructed forms, comprised of photographic prints on Silk Habotai, Silk Organza, Silk Douppioni and on mounted Hahnemühle Baryta fine art paper. These forms will feature digitally manipulated images of artefacts sourced from the archives of the Silk Museum in Macclesfield, the FAR Textile Museum, and the Como Silk Museum. Part of a broader field of research into the materiality and affects of silk, as a part of a planned AHRC Curiosity award application. Through this work I ask: How might an understanding of silk textiles, through art practice, reveal and conjure new readings of Queer modes of being and affect? Can Silk fabric be positioned as an agent in gender and class transgression? The interactive element of "Silk Shades, Slubbed", will, I hope, contribute to the production of new forms of knowledge via the shifting thresholds between body and silk garment, mirrored by the shifting thresholds between artwork and audience.