Textured Effects in Textile Arts as a Medium of Artistic Expression

Abstract

The textured effect of the washing process is an 'inevitable change appearance' in fabrics. The quest for the potentiality of these inevitable change textures in textiles generated the research topic. This research aims to analyze existing textured effects on appearance and to identify critical factors to create textured effects in which textile art is the medium, in order to contribute to the knowledge of the relationship between temporal and conceptual contexts in inevitable change to expand the aesthetic quality of these appearances through the researcher, from an art practitioner's viewpoint.

The research methodology employed iterative practice-led research and research-led practice in a single project. In this research, literature reviews, research studies, field studies, notetaking, observation, and photography are tools to identify the concept of artistic 'medium' through experiments. Local materials and parts of traditional processes are applied for the experiments. The first half of the experiments was to collect materials from traditional materials processes with local artisans in Northeastern Thailand. Indigenous handspun cotton and silk that are predominantly used in local Thai handwoven textiles are selected for this research. Yarn twist made by cotton and silk, obtaining the alternative characteristics and property of elasticity add the potentiality of textured effects into common local materials. The processes and works of professional artists were adopted to understand the relationship between the physical and aesthetical by creating textile art practices.

The research result is a series of textile art representing creative textiles’ textures that inevitably change appearance into the main protagonist. These textile artworks’ new characters conveyed the relationship between materials, process, and conceptual context making as an expressive tool for subjective inspiration, to approach the art and/or design outcome of the topic. As an art practitioner, the researcher gains both tacit physical and aesthetic knowledge through this research and practice. Furthermore, the alternative characteristics added to common local materials that expand the potentiality of yarn making could create new value, both physical and aesthetic, for future alternatives to use in the local textile community.

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