Tia Ansell On Translating Architectural Details To Abstract, Intricate Weaving-Paintings

Tia Ansell’s intricate weaving-paintings thread together narratives of observational patterns that exist within her urban surroundings, exploring the nature of weaving as surface and structure, and creating abstract compositions from architectural references.

Melbourne Art Fair speaks with the Aotearoa/New Zealand-born artist about her process and her current solo exhibition at Gallery 9 (Gadigal Country/Sydney), Coda, open until 27 July.

How did you initially become acquainted with the loom and weaving as a practice?

I began with weaving while I was at art school in Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts in 2015. First semester of the first year we had a project to remove traditional painting methods as a response to mapping out a location. I made a weaving frame, for the warp to be wrapped around with the style of weaving more like building a picture, as simple as that. This expanded into a larger frame. In third year I acquired my first floor loom which changed the way weavings are created – quicker, finer and more complex weaving patterns. Later on in the year, Summer of 2018, I spent time in Ecuador where I learnt how to weave on a backstrap loom, as well as spinning and dyeing yarns.

Weaving is a quintessential human culture, first found samples (bear in mind textiles are very fragile and degrade quickly) date back 30,000 years in a Georgian cave, and in more recent history have been found in almost every single culture independently- think Viking sails, silk road, Quipu recording device, linen wrappings for mummies and so on… ‘cloth is the original technology’ (Wayland Barber, Prehistoric Textiles).

Clothing is the most obvious use for textiles, but it’s in almost everything we use daily – electronics, in the home, on transport, in space, the invisible support structure of a painting. There is no escaping it. Back to the beginning, I simply could not avoid becoming fascinated with the support structure of weaving.

Tia Ansell in her studio. Photos: Cristina Ulloa Sobarzo.

Can you describe your process in generating codes for your geometric weavings and their significance in your work? Do you think about the subsequent possibilities of adding paint to the work and how both mediums will interact during this process?

I must explain before describing the importance of code in my own work, that the very structure of loom weaving is rooted in coding. The preparation of the warp threads, the chosen ply, thread types, and colours, the application on the loom – the sequence on heddles and finally at the weaving stage- the introduction of warp threads, the ratio of warp weft structure and the sequence of the treadles. These decisions all impact the structural texture and visual pattern making. With this in mind, weaving is highly ordered and organised. I plan the woven work before it’s made, as there is not much room for improvisation. The set up of the loom is most important, and must be perfect.

I feel like I’m spilling my secrets now, however, I begin a work by creating a sequence of code, typically it’s a number between 20 and 60, then I repeat this to the desired width of the final stretched work. The code is taken from a cross section or slice of a chosen location, each number or thread representing the amount of space an element or material occupies. The coded thread may have varied materiality- linen, cotton, silk, bamboo, be various ply sizes 2 to 8, and be varied in colour. I tend to weave in 1:1 warp weft facing, and weave commonly in plain, twill or diamond twill. The weft can be the same sequence of the warp, or I can introduce another code.

The relationship between the initial location and the final linear pattern of the final woven work becomes very diluted. The weaving aspect of my practice is an extrapolation of the location, generated into a code for the sequence of threads. The painted element focuses on design or architectural elements from the initial location, and are applied in a smooth and geometric manner. These two elements emphasise the structure of the location, yet create a whole new abstracted image.

Matiere, a word of French origin, is understood to describe the surface appearance of material- smoothness or roughness, its grain, gloss or matte-ness. Matiere has to be approached like colour, with a receptive eye and mind to discover meaning in its language. The dual relationship of material surface and material structure are bound together within the act of weaving painting. They both exist in balance and the transition from one to another, “like a pendulum that swings from artistic interest to industrial science” (Anni Albers, On Weaving).

What sort of works can we expect to see at your upcoming show at Gallery 9?

The exhibition at Gallery 9 is titled ‘Coda’. The show includes weaving paintings that explore the language of abstraction, symbolism, material culture and architectural structures.

As it’s my first exhibition at Gallery 9, and a solo at that, I’ve made a varied body of work. There are eight small works, five medium and one large. The small weavings were made while on residency at Lottozero in Prato Italy last year, and finished in my studio this year. The remaining were made in my studio. All the works are based on important social and historical structures in Northern Italy that I visited on my research trip before and after the residency. These structures are the marble work inside Cappelle Medicee in Florence; the modern Perilli tower in Milan; and 5th century Mosaic works of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia Ravenna and Castelvecchio in Verona. These locations speak of architectural triumphs, historical importance and celebration of life and death.

What details do you look for, in your immediate and further surroundings, when conceptualising a composition? Can you expand on the significance of architecture in your work and how it contributes to the textures and patterns you develop through thread and paint?

Great question. Honestly everything. What draws me towards a particular landscape or building that I find fascinating might be it’s social history, an interesting detail or may hold sentimental value. I also consider a central theme for a body of work or for an exhibit at its conception.

The significance of architecture loops back to its inherent relationship with weaving. Weaving in its construction are immersive webs and structural networks that exchange information on its substrate. Unlike most modes of making, weaving in its textilic form has a surface which is its structure and its structure is its surface, and any pattern embedded in its substrate are still organically part of its surface structure. Each thread creates a whole meshwork surface that doesn’t have an inside or an outside, but are both at the same time as they shift from revealing and concealing its form. The addition of paint walks along this line too. The combination of the blocked out, flat and geometric paint with the highly patterned mesh break the sequence, to vibrate and leap from their fibre substrate.

Once the chosen location is made, and the fabric is woven and stretched, the painting brings the importance of the location back into the work in a more direct and obvious way. This may include a tiled pattern, the layout of a marble wall, the mosaic detail or window layout, to name a few. The combination of thread and paint explore the language of abstraction, symbolism, material culture and architectural structures.

You have previously spoken about your interest in psychogeography. How do the cultural markers and rich architectural and socio-cultural histories of the places you have worked in and referenced around the world influence the outcomes of your work?

Psycho-geography is a situationist term that describes a psychological experience of an urban-geographical landscape, in which this space reveals and responds psychologically. A drifter with the agender of walking is grounded and an advocate for the becoming trajectory to better connect with a space. It’s not about the beginning or end, but the space between. The trajectory and the journey in which one may be able to get lost. They move along and cross these lines, they pause, turn back and loop. It’s a happen-chance flow.
I love the romanticism of psycho-geography. However, even though it’s no longer a central concept of my practice, I do continue using my interest in drifting and observing urban structures. I translate these observations and transfer the experience on to fabric that has their own pre-determined organisational surface structures.

Tia Ansell is represented by LON Gallery (Naarm/Melbourne) and {Suite} Gallery (Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland).

To enquire about Tia’s works, click here to contact Gallery 9.

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