Chisenhale Gallery in Bow, London presents a solo exhibition by London born, New York based, artist Nick Relph who works across video, drawing and installation. This commission of an entirely new body of work will be his first major solo exhibition in a public institution following his ten-year collaboration with Oliver Payne (1999-2009).
Tomorrow There is No Recording examines handicraft, materials and ideas of value and exchange, and the relationship of industrial processes to contemporary economic models. Using a four-harness floor loom, Relph has fabricated a series of small weaves using materials including polyester, rayon, silk, monofilament, latex and paper. The weaves are presented at Chisenhale as part of a specially conceived installation.
Relph’s interest in handmade, woven textiles stems from an appreciation of the labour involved in their production, in addition to the particular formal and material resonance of these constructed fabrics within our digitally-oriented culture. Woven surfaces can be read as images, whilst also retaining the information of their making – mistakes and irregularities or impressions from the loom – and the signs of wear that emerge over time and through use. This preoccupation with the relationship between image and surface emerges from Relph’s previous film and video work. He has said: ‘I can’t think about moving image now without thinking about this surface upon which it’s being viewed’.
Relph first began to explore his interest in the material and social effects of textiles through moving image. Thre Stryppis Quhite Upon ane Blak Field (2010) – presented at the Venice Biennial 2011 and currently on display at Tate St Ives – connects the meandering history of tartan with the Japanese fashion label Comme des Garçons and the artist Ellsworth Kelly. Here, Relph employs a trilogy of colour – red, blue and green – as a visual motif and conceptual device to weave associations between subject matter in the film. The history of colour reproduction, manufacture and consumption are further explored through the presentation of the film as a composite RGB projection, which recalls the mechanical print processes used in the textile industry.
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Woven Light was exhibited at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2014. Under the theme light – material – structure the textile design students from the Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, explored the interaction between different light settings and light qualities and the creation of woven textile structures. Special light emitting and reactive materials were introduced, including reflex materials, “glow in the dark†and PMMA optical fibres. The aim was to introduce the students to Smart Materials and current textile research in the context of traditional weaving techniques. The course has been lead by Ulla Ranglin, hand weaving expert, accompanied by Barbara Jansen, textile design researcher in the area of light emitting textiles. They are also members of the Smart Textiles Unit at the Swedish School of Textiles.
