Poly Verity

http://www.polyscene.com/

Marcie Miller Gross

http://www.marciemillergross.com/index.html 

Artist Statement

Within my site responsive drawings, installations and objects, I am fascinated with the interplay between the spatial, conceptual, and architectonic conditions of a place. Through an incremental means of building with utilitarian materials, industrial felt, paper towels, clothing, new and used hospital and bath towels, I make structures that address mass and void, line, weight, density, compression and expansion. Within these qualities, I find parallels in the physical and psychological states of the body, and the human condition. These pliable materials have an intense relationship to the body, and the capacity to carry traces, memory and a potent history of former use. My interest in mundane physical actions of folding, cutting, separating, stacking finds its focus in organization and reduction. The directness of a simple activity of the hand, in addition to issues in the industry of labor and serial repetition, make reference to artistic precedent such as mono-ha and minimalism.

The integration of form, structure and materiality with an architectonic response to space, is critical to this work. Analyzing the experiential and psychological aspects of space has led me to explore drawing methods of articulating form through lines of axis, spatial movement, and in the Japanese concept of ma, a combined sense of place and time. Through examining plan, elevation and section of a space, I blur boundaries of wall, plane and object within the geometry of their architectural context.

Guerra de la Paz

http://www.guerradelapaz.com/

Guerra de la Paz is the composite name that represents the creative team efforts of Cuban born artists, Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz- who live and work in Miami, Florida - and have been consistantly producing collaboratively since 1996. 

Artist Statement

Our work is based on a combination of traditional disciplines and experimentation with dimension and the use of unconventional materials.  It is inspired by an essential familiarity with the ready made and the archeological qualities that found objects possess.  Encapsulating an energy that reveals underlying meanings and depicts the significance of mass produced refuse on our society.

Through a common aesthetic, we create work with a universal message.  Using recycled objects as our medium and the guidance of the unrelenting amounts of information that fuels todays mass consciousness and it's subversive parallels.  Allowing us ways to reinvent historic themes and classic icons while still commenting on contemporary culture.

Our close proximity to the Pepe businesses that once thrived in Little Haiti has been a major source of inspiration.  Gaining access to an overubundance of discarded clothing - relics that once helped define an individual's personality and communally speak of environmental issues, mass consumption and disposability - opened the doors for us to working with garments as a material.  We often see ourselves as vehicles guided by their essence and silent histories.

Elisabeth Higgins O'Connor

http://www.elisabethhigginsoconnor.com/index.html

Jared Steffensen

http://www.jaredsteffensen.com/work.html

Fernando Brizio

http://fernandobrizio.com/

Viktor and Rolf

http://www.loreal.com/maint-viktorandrolf.html

Regine Rack

http://www.reginerack.com/about-this-site/

Annie Collinge

http://www.collinge.com/

Born 1980 in London, England and based in Brooklyn, New York.

Shelly Goldsmith

http://www.shellygoldsmith.com/page.php?5

UK trained and based textile artist.

Shelly Goldsmith is amongst the foremost artists working with textiles in the UK at the present time.
Millar,Lesley, Revealed:Nottingham's Contemporary Textiles, Catalogue 

In 2000 Goldsmith created Dew Point, made from cotton and wool, the piece was a site-specific tapestry installation deconstructed over 42 days.

In May 2008, Goldsmith presented an exhibition called Indelible: Every Contact Leaves a Trace at Fabrica gallery, Brighton, UK.

This work was made exploring the residue of latent experience and imagery within cloth and clothing.  Laser technology was utilised to sear, scorch and scald imagery and experience onto reclaimed garments. Also the embossed and imprinted residue of archival plant material was printed onto the interiors of used clothes.

CRAFT MAKER INTERVIEWS taken from V&A Museum

Shelly Goldsmith

Goldsmith has exhibited at major galleries and museums in Britain, Europe, the USA and Japan. In 2002 she was awarded the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize for textiles.

Her work is in many notable public collections including: the V&A, Nottingham Castle Museum, the Crafts Council and the Whitworth Museum. During 1991 to 2006, she was Head of BA (Hons) and MA Textile Art at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton.

Did you undertake formal training in college or within the industry, or did you find your way into crafts via a different route?

I undertook formal art school training, firstly within the Textiles Department and latterly on my Masters degree within the Fine Art Department at the RCA. I learnt much of the craft and professional practice issues from working with other artists/makers.

1982-1985 BA (Hons) - Textiles. West Surrey College of Art and Design, Farnham.
1985-1987 MA - Tapestry. Royal College of Art
1984 Student placements and professional posts with a variety of studios/makers, such as West Dean Tapestry Studios, Jennie Moncur, William Jefferies, Sally Greaves Lord.

How would you describe your work and your position within the Crafts world?

I locate myself on the cusp of craft and fine art. Process and making are very important to me, my work is underpinned by ideas or concepts. The concepts dictate the choice of materials, methods and context in which the work is explored and produced.

What type of materials do you prefer to use?

I use range of materials that are appropriate to the ideas I am exploring at that time and so this necessitates a wide engagement with different approaches and methods. I am interested in the craft of weaving, especially woven tapestry, and stitch related to clothing. I have used materials as far-ranging as silk, wool, glass and coal.

What would you most like to make that you haven't made so far?

I would like to make a piece that extends the use of scale in my work. Generally I tend to work quite small, and I think  this is due to lack of concentrated time in the studio over the last few years.  I would like to work on a large installation and/or commission.

Walter Van Beirendonck

http://www.waltervanbeirendonck.com/

Freddie Robins

http://www.freddierobins.com/

UK Textile Knit Artist

Artist's Statement

My studio practice questions conformity and notions of normality, and intersects the categorisation of art and craft. I use knitting to explore pertinent contemporary issues of the domestic, gender and the human condition. I find knitting to be a powerful medium for self-expression and communication because of the cultural preconceptions surrounding it. My work subverts these preconceptions and disrupts the notion of the medium being passive and benign. My ideas are expressed through an exploration of the human form and have resulted in pieces such as "Odd Gloves" and "Odd Sweaters". These series question physical normality incorporating both humour and fear. The titles are important. I like to play on words to make visual suggestions: "Hand of Good, Hand of God" and "Skin - a good thing to live in". In "Anyway" I explore value and scale through the production of a large knitted sculpture made on CAD controlled industrial machinery. My most recent body of work, "The Perfect", further explores the potential of industrial technology. I have been producing knitted multiples through the use of a Shima Seiki WholeGarment® machine (a computerised, automated, industrial V-bed flat machine, which is capable of knitting a three-dimensional seamless garment).   These multiples take the form of life size, three-dimensional human bodies. I have combined them in a variety of different ways to create large-scale installations. These works question conformity and notions of standardization and perfection.

Nick Cave

http://oddstrument.com/nick-caves-sound-suits/

Nick Cave, an artist and educator working out of Chicago, is the creator of full body “soundsuits” which are made from layers of metal, plastic, fabric, hair, found objects, and other things that rub together to make noise. Many of Cave’s soundsuits are politically/socially inspired and have deeper meanings than just looking fantastic and making rustle sounds.

Lucy and Bart

http://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/6040/1/the-magic-of-lucy-and-bart-

Lucy McRae

http://www.lucymcrae.net/

Bart Hess

http://www.barthess.nl/

Pinata Party

http://thersic.com/wordpress/wordpress/?p=7178

Rachel De Joode

http://www.racheldejoode.com/art.html