Sarah Desmarais

At one level, my work is about slow making itself. My practice explores the value inherent in laborious, precise, repetitive, mindful manual production. This value can be articulated in terms of a more sustainable culture of ‘fewer, better things’ (Adamson, 2018), and also in terms of an ethic of patience and care metaphorically sewn into each piece, resulting in textiles with emotional durability. Visually, I’m interested in exploring an aesthetic of tiny variations, tenacious repetition and fragile order perturbed by currents of disruption and minor imperfections – ideas echoed in the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi. I often work in a reduced colour palette of blacks, whites and neutrals in order to focus on pattern and form. I’m fascinated by the way that a motif hand printed with a hand-cut stencil results in myriad forms that are each unique; and how the stitches in a hand-sewn seam each have their own unique length and character. These irregularities produce a liveliness and syncopation captivating to the eye, and often lacking in digital repeats and industrial garment construction. At another level, my work seeks to communicate emotionally. I intend my mark making and means of construction to articulate a poetry of the fragile and the intricate. My use of extremely delicate, sheer and irregular materials, often layered, references human embeddedness in complex, shifting assemblages including fragile ecosystems. I see my textile and garment design as occupying a liminal space between the fine and applied arts – a space that enables the use of the body as a canvas, and inspires a rich affective vocabulary.