Rebecca Diele
Rebecca Diele – 'Permutations: The Degrees of Freedom', 2023
Permutations: The Degrees of Freedom is a large-scale paper sculpture. Suspended mid-air, the work conveys ideas of opposing forces and a sense of tension as threads radiate towards the floor. In constructing the work, Diele methodically followed a geometric and structured sequence of patterns to stitch cotton thread into paper. She repeated this controlled process before embracing randomness by dowsing the work in water, interrupting the precise arrangements of the threads, and allowing space for change and modification of the system. As the water loosens the paper’s fibres, Diele simultaneously pulls on the cotton threads to manipulate the paper’s surface into an undulating, topographical form. The work sits at a delicate and tender moment between materiality and process, where new possibilities and outcomes arise.
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Rebecca Diele is a multi-disciplinary artist working across weaving, mark-making, sculpture and installation. Her practice engages various materials and phenomena using process-led methodologies to consider the tension, contradiction and synthesis of opposing forces: order/disorder, randomness/control, rule/freedom and strength/vulnerability. Diele’s work also captures the process of material transformation in which unexpected meaning and understanding emerge from interruption.
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Occupying Space
September 23 – November 4
Occupying Space considers spatiality in contemporary textile practice. Five artists explore three-dimensionality in a series of fibre-based sculptural installations. The works are assertive and bold in their manipulation of fibre and thread; transformed into dynamic structures of mass and volume.
These exhibitors are part of a powerful history of fibre-based knowledge and skill, and together expand the assurance and versatility of textile practice today.
Occupying Space is presented as part of Craft Contemporary 2023 – our annual festival celebrating craft practice today.
Material: 300 GSM cotton paper, cotton thread, ink and metal.
Dimensions: 180 x 100 x 350cm
