While learning to dye wool with natural dyes, students created spatial objects with a simple guideline: wool yarn is first a line in a square that occupies its place in space alone or in a group. The relationship between the line and the square, as well as the color of the line, is based on research of water in our environment.
The series of objects Line in a Square, Square in Space includes three research areas.
The first is an artistic exploration of the square, this enigmatic figure of four equal sides, which has historically often represented a symbol of house, home, and strength, and lies deep in our consciousness. Ancient cities and modern buildings were designed after it. Its structural possibilities are being explored by architects and artists, and it is also present in one of the famous textile art installations from 1979, called “Élément spatial” by the Swiss artist Elsi Qiauque.
Another area of knowledge was the manual technique of dyeing textiles with natural dyes, more specifically dyeing with food scraps, i.e. “Food waste” dyes. The students dyed wool yarn of the autochthonous Slovenian sheep breed and introduced it as a colored line into the square and from the square into the space.
The third area is the research of the topic of water, with an emphasis on human exploitation of this resource, which is necessary for the existence of all living things. The idea of the third area was merged by the students with the first two into distinctive units; cubes, frames, rooms and waterfalls filled with line-yarn dyed in natural shades of the home environment.
Photography: Maša Pirc / BIEN 2021
