Janine Davidson
I am a weaver and designer currently living and working in Melbourne with my patient partner Andrew and my adoring collection of inquisitive pets.
From my childhood I cannot remember a time when I was not sewing or knitting or making up my own designs to ensure I had the best dressed pets and dolls in my street. My Mum was the domestic goddess who imparted all those skills to me, but it was not until much later in my formal studies of weaving and textile design that I joined the dots between domestic skills and art-making with fabric. The common thread, if I may be excused the pun, is the time it takes to make beautiful functional things. I love the way weaving slows me down to the rhythm of meditation. I enjoy knowing how much patience and skill it takes to not rush at the work in hand. Hand made textiles emerge at human scale. They carry within their warp and weft the truth of the weaver: this is exactly how long it takes to make this specific piece, no more and no less. I love the individual, the unique. I resist the mass produced. I embrace the imperfections that often occur during hand crafted production. I rejoice in the fallible individuality of the hand that made the piece.
Woven cloth is constructed from a very simple process: either the weft passes over the warp or it passes under it. This basic interlacing of threads is a departure point for unbounded creative input; at each choice of intersection the weaver can generate countless patterns, variations, one-off motifs or regular repetitions. Ancient handicrafts made from natural fibres or modern textiles derived from scientific innovations in the manufacture of flexible materials (think nylon) all express the primal human need for warmth, comfort and covering. However, I believe that textiles do more than show us how we learned from earliest times to clothe ourselves for comfort. They also show how we have endlessly decorated, elaborated and entertained our need for colour, texture and sexual display.
What I love about weaving is my ability to bring order from chaos. I am amazed that I can manipulate thousands of metres of yarn with never a tangle, work with an ancient method of construction but know the unpredictability of the combinations I may be contemplating. I have learned that all my planning can still be overturned by a sudden serendipitous outcome, a chance structure with a certain finish, welcome, but not foreseen.
I work slowly. I like to let my ideas for my work percolate up from the depths of my intuitive mind. The work for this exhibition is no exception. Two years in gestation, it has only really been the past few months that I have felt confident my interpretations and interpolations of Cheryl’s collection of fabrics capture my designs for woven textiles. When my work is going well I am filled with a sense of calm. I feel humble and elated at the same time. When I think about there being an audience for my work I want more than anything else for the people looking at my work to have an opinion about it. I am not looking for any particular reaction, simply that there be a reaction. If people have an urge to touch my pieces then I have succeeded in creating what I want from a textile, a texture of communication. With these works I am attempting to tell a story, a story of adventure and new experiences for me as the creator
I am soon to make the journey north to settle in our new home in Mullumbimby, but not before we show TEXTile: Reading the Cloth - my first collaborative textile exhibition.
My collaborators are the unknown yet supremely skilful weavers of the pieces in Cheryl’s collection of hand-woven south-east Asian textiles. Little did she know during her thirty years of travels through the region that one day her beloved stash of wonderful fabrics acquired along the way would be the inspiration for me to re-tell its many stories on my own loom?
Textiles and design are a passion Cheryl and I both share. My love of weaving was late to bloom but I now relish the fact that I have many years to make up for this serious oversight. Cheryl’s enthusiasm in commissioning me to create the works for this show was infectious. After some initial nerves I plunged into the source textiles. Inevitably my pieces vary in fibre and technique from my unknown collaborators. Nevertheless it is clear that the act of weaving is a common joy for each one of us. We speak of weaving a tale, we look for the thread of an idea, we see the cut of our cloth and we celebrate the fruit of our looms.
I am so glad to have the opportunity to share my journey of discovery through reading this cloth.
Jenine Davidson
Master Weaver
24th March 2007
Interview with Cheryl Hannah, Director FyreGallery: FYREGALLERY 5th Exhibition in Braidwood from 30 March until 15 April 2007
Presenting their fifth exhibition in FyreGallery, Hannahfyre Enterprises brings “TEXTile:Reading the Cloth” to Braidwood. For Melbourne weaver Jenine Davidson, “TEXTile” marks her first solo exhibition of weaving and handmade fabrics. It is accompanied by the publication of her delightful little book, “Asia in a Box”, which shows Davidson’s skill with a pen is as keen as it is with her loom.
Opening on Friday 30 March, Hannah says the exhibition of Jenine’s new work is a collaboration 20 years in the making. “I can hardly believe that I am so fortunate”, she said. “I wanted to show case textiles in FyreGallery right from the start, but it took a couple of years to find the right artist because it is a big space to fill for work as hugely labour intensive as hand-woven, hand dyed, felted and stitched fabrics”. “Davidson is that artist”, she said.
A graduate of RMIT University’s School of Textile Design, Davidson’s weaving has been recognized for its technical virtuosity combined with very strong design elements. In “TEXTile” Davidson has given free reign to her intuition as she interprets the motifs and stories of the source weaving – Hannah’s collection of hand-woven fabrics collected over twenty years on her various journey’s through south-east Asia. Davidson’s imaginative collaboration with the unknown weavers of Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia Laos and the Philippines is wittily documented in “Asia in a Box”. It is easy to see how much she enjoyed taking inspiration from the colours and textures while weaving her own magic into the mix.
Located at 84 Wallace St, FyreGallery is now an established exhibition space in Braidwood which seeks to fill a niche for artists wanting professionally curated public exposure of their work, as well as providing a fine art space to bring international works to a new audience.
