Past Exhibition
What Does It Say
Rhichard Devrieze
July 2003
This show explores the woven work of textile artist Rhichard Devrieze. Drawing from the impressionistic woven landscapes of rugs and scarves, to the present abstract wall mounted pieces that comprise an assemblage of forms and textures appliquéd onto a woven ground, What Does it Say presents an overview on the possibilities of coloured yarn.
Forsaking the paper cartoon as a traditional devrieze1method of staying in contact with the all over design on the weaving loom, the artist plunges into colour and form as a playful, unpremeditated, intuitive response to the progression at hand. Devrieze's is a somewhat cavalier approach to working a loom, given that so much yardage is rolled up in the machine and out of context.
Stratified from the geological layers of stone, clay, earth, through water, fire and sky, one series of woven mats devoted to the landscape leads to an elemental discourse on the dawn of being and the romantic primordial.
In weaving individual yarns to make a whole, whether as large areas of colour or single elements of contrast, the structure of the process is inescapable.devrieze2
Devrieze manipulates this woven imperative, playing between the pointillist's punctuation of colour that is subservient to the whole and yet maintains its individual integrity. This singularity of the whole is the democracy of the yarn, and it is a glorious democracy.