Artwork
THE FABRIC GROUND SERIES
NEW GROUNDS sees Dionne applying her instinctive understanding of textiles to her developing mastery of printmaking. The result is reminiscent of landscape – folds, curves and undulations; marks which might be shadows or forms; lines which create paths through or boundaries around. Collograph is Swift’s chosen technique for this new series. Her studio provides the found objects which she applies to a card backing board – a label from a roll of tape; sandpaper; tissue; a strip of fabric. The plates are cool and reserved until the ink draws the textures from the woollen felt print blankets on which she works.
Dionne sees the broken patterns and distorted rhythms created by edges that aren’t quite straight and angles that don’t quite match; waiting frames reared up against a wall; a half open set of drawers. It is these discrepancies in order which inspire the stitching, cutting, and layering onto and into the printed felt that adds further depths and gives the finished work its warmth and physicality.
Dionne Swift brings to her work the energy and excitement of one who delights in the discovery of new approaches and techniques. In this new collection there is no doubt that the same delight will be shared by her audience.
Jo Gorner/Printmaker & Lee Corner/Creative Mentor
DEVORE WALL PIECES
Dionne Swift carves the wildness of windswept landscapes into fabric, creating ploughed furrows of subtle and surprising tones – Lee Corner/Portfolio
In the open-ness and tranquillity of the landscape, I find calm and inspiration. The open aspect is fresh and up lifting. The immense scale of the moors and valleys in Yorkshire constantly overwhelm me with their magnificence. I am intrigued by the intimacy of the sky and land with their ever-changing roles of solidity and translucency.
I use devoré processes on velvet to explore the changing structural qualities in the landscape.
I dye and hand paint the cloth, I over paint and employ dye reduction techniques to develop visual layers and the notion of depth
I aim to allow the processes selected to add to the development of the work. The techniques used are as important as the imagery depicted.
The devoré process was developed on C17th France as a means of creating a poor man’s lace. Devoré – to devour – to eat away/to burn out. The fabric I use is a combination of silk and viscose, the devoré process removes the viscose pile.
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