Events
22 Feb 2018
Artist Talk
Johanna Bramble
Suspended Frontiers
6 pm
photo: Johanna Bramble
The title of the artist talk by the French artist and designer Johanna Bramble, Suspended Frontiers, refers to the idea that textiles are witnesses of the evolution of civilization, allowing us to glimpse unsuspected links between cultures. They free our minds of geographical and political borders.
After an introduction to her work and reflections on symbolic weaving, especially in Senegal, in this talk Johanna Bramble will present a project she was able to work on during her residency in May 2017 at Thread, a cultural center of The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Sinthian, Eastern Senegal. Cotton created an intimate link between the Sinthian area and the invisible roots of the artist.
The talk is part of the project SEEDS FOR FUTURE MEMORIES. Voicing the two ends of migration, a collaboration between the Thread artist residencies in Sinthian, Senegal and Villa Romana in Florence, Italy. Thirteen artists will travel between Senegal and Italy during the year 2018, addressing the realities at both ends of migration.
Johanna Bramble (1976, Paris) is a textile artist and designer who has been living in Dakar, Senegal for more than ten years. Drawn to Senegal by the country’s rich expertise in weaving and fabric, she opened a weaving workshop in Dakar and today employs four Senegalese weavers. The special feature of Senegalese weaving is a loom that requires the presence of two people, a weaver and an assistant. The rhythm of weaving produced by the coordination between the two – almost like a dance – is an integral aspect of the creation process, enabling complex and intrinsic pattern and color variations. Johanna Bramble’s commercial textile designs employ not only these native techniques but also symbolic geometric patterns, and oscillate between the country’s rich textile culture and modern interpretations. Constant evolution, metamorphosis and transformation are key elements of her artistic works. Incorporating new materials (from metal to fiber optics) into the traditional weaving universe expands the limits of hand weaving while also sparking new insights into the textile heritage.
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