Ivana Taylor
Ivana Taylor makes sculptural objects that play with form and line. Conceptualised as watercolour paintings and realised in three dimensions through digital drawings, they are then rendered in timber and wrapped in hand-dyed textiles, with gradations in colour and tone evident in the binding around each sculpture’s frame. Taylor describes this process as wrapping “textile flesh over timber bones.” This organic and subtle genesis is evoked in artworks that express nurture and affection.
Image credit: IVANA TAYLOR Bond, 2023, hand-dyed linen and bendy ply, 100 x 85 x 12 cm. Courtesy the artist and Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, Sydney
The genesis of each work is a watercolour sketch, which might come from an experience or observation of connection or affection, like the wrapping of limbs in a hug. Distilling that physical and emotional interaction into a continuous line is what I set out to achieve. I translate the free-form watercolour drawing into three dimensions by creating a digital blueprint. Unique layers of each sculpture’s blueprint are CNC cut for precision in multiple layers of timber (bendy ply), which are then laminated together to form a continuous loop. The bricking in each layer allows for a light but strong interlocking structure, akin to a train track.
I have adapted furniture techniques to allow my textile practice to become sculptural. I’m really interested in how a robust and rigid structure can be physically and symbolically softened by textiles. What I love about these layers of process is how they transform a simple linear expression into a three-dimensional form. It becomes a fluid and energised body with timber and textile wrapping. In these continuous loops are illusions. People discern relationships within them – like a mother and child, or people hugging. Others like to trace the continuous infinity loop, to work out how it’s structured, where it begins and ends.
Once the form is realised in timber, the textile process comes in. I return to watercolour to select colours and then go through the process of dyeing the linen or cotton, often with natural indigo and plant ... Subscribe to read this article in full
