Photo Jean-Yves Le Dorlot
Artworks translated into woven textile, tapestry and printed fabric
Three kinds of fabric work, translated from Diane Victor’s drawings and lithographs, bring a new dimension to her Folly Frailty and Fear exhibition.
Fire Curtain, a woven textile based on one of Victor’s smoke drawings, is the work of Côme Touvay, a textile artist and designer at the Atelier le Grand Village in France. The 100% linen fabric echoes the ephemeral nature of the smoke drawing through the use of a range of 73 shades of grey blending one into another to effectively capture light and shadow.
This materialization and the large size of 342 x 296 cm propose a theatrical dimension: the face floats in the space and appears or disappears according to the light source. By going behind the “curtain” the viewer can behold the reverse side of the image.
The technique is inspired by an antique weaving technique from Syria, the damask (“woven with figures”), and has been woven by a rare Belgian manufacturer who still produces this high quality with pure linen.
Trojan (Bareback), a tapestry of 246 x 197 cm woven in mohair by the Stephens Tapestry Studio refers a lithograph completed by Victor in 2019. This studio, finding its origins in the 1960s, has since successfully interpreted the vision of numerous artists, such as Cecil Skotnes, Edoardo Villa, Sydney Khumalo, Cecily Sash, Judith Mason, Norman Catherine, Sam Nhlengethwa, Walter Battiss, Karel Nel, Robert Hodgins and William Kentridge under the watchful eye of Marguerite Stevens.
Victor has furthermore embarked on digital printing of smoke drawings on chiffon. These experimental works resonate with the fleeting transience of soot on paper.
