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Textiles (MA)

Huan Wang

Huan Wang works across text, textiles, installation and film. She studies and lives in London as a cultural traveller, telling the connection between human and other existences in the modern urban space in the way of poetry and material narrative.

Wang's textile works are partly emotional fragments and partly document her natural experiences in urban spaces. It sometimes is a line of poetry, or a name, calling for a past that has not gone far. Her cultural narration extends to some waste in the city. During the creative process, Huan maintains a genuine, physical connection with the collected objects, allowing her to preserve their inherent sense of time. By touching the materials, she solidifies her personal narrative, infusing it with a tangible quality.


artist self portrait

Huan Wang's artistic practice conveys the sense of being as a human and explores the intersection of strength and fragility. While carefully and equally approaching the fragile fringes of the natural world, pointing to the neglected marginal and subaltern existence of human society is a common theme in her textile work. She pays attention to the fragile corners of those solid order systems, often collecting fallen fasteners and falling leaves from street trees while roaming the city.

Focusing on the symbolism and provenance of objects, Wang likes to juxtapose two conflicting materials. In self-healing, 2023, the yarn of the cotton gauze is carefully pulled out, and then stitched back with the technique of surgical suture, stitching the silk and cotton together, leaving Japanese Boro stitches on the silk side.

Wang considers the direct presentation and viewing of the body to be a form of violence and a sensory attack on the viewer. Avoiding the direct expression of the body is a common visual feature in her textile work. In order to awaken the more universal existence and point to the absent anonymous body, Wang replaces the absent body through the traces left by the interaction between the body and materials.

We get the clothes, but where the leftovers go.I dragged it out and placed on the river wall to demonstrate the neglected fragile existence
Skin of the River, 2023140cm x 70cm. cotton T-shit fabric, Thames river mud stains, mudlark hemp rope
details of the leftovers. It is tied with twine to chains on the river wall
Textile will be designed in different widths to meet the needs of making clothing, curtains, and quilts. I used this T-shirt fabric and cut it to the body size. The middle of the fabric was cut out in the shape of a vest and became a filter for getting Thames clay.
In the dark, fragile leftovers flutter in the wind

Skin and cloth are both fragile elements that sometimes emerge from construction gaps.

Their fragile leftovers left transient traces,

Presenting a kind of ambiguous, anonymous body.

In the name "Thames", it may have meant "dark".

Brown is the color that supports lives.

It is a sign that nutrients are well mixed.

Mud is the color of the river, its body, and its name.



thames river mud
In February 2023, I collected some mud from the stairs on the embankment, and they were very clean clay after draining. But the next day, the tide took them all away, and I had to filter the topsoil from the riverbed for traces of clay. It must have been a gift to me from the river, an invitation to be near, a way of gaining knowledge.
'They need to breath', 2023. Thames river topsoil, river mud, paper clay, cotton knitted fabric, nails 20cm x 20cm
'They need to breath', 2023
'They need to breath', 2023
'They need to breath', 2023

Medium:

Thames river topsoil, river mud, paper clay, cotton knitted fabric, nails

Size:

20cm x 20cm
The belly of Thames, 2023
The belly of Thames, 2023.thames river mud, cotton gray cloth. 140cm x 70cm
Belly of the river, 2023thames river mud, cotton gray cloth 140cm x 70cm
details, surgical suture.
moulding the riverbed. sculpture of touching the belly.
'Touching the belly', 2023Thames riverbed topsoil, plaster, clay, cotton yarn, ink. 40cm x 27cm
backside of the sculpture of touching the belly.
Touching the belly, video, 0'49'', 2023Location: under the Battersea bridge
self-healing embroidery,Surgical suture stitch
self-healing embroidery,Surgical suture stitch
Self-healing 01, 2023Cotton gauze, silk, marker ink. Surgical suture stitch.15cm x 20cm.
the process of self-healing is very slow, and it happens in very subtle places.
details
Self-healing 02 front, 2023
Self-healing 02, 2023Cotton gauze, cotton gray cloth, silk, marker ink. Surgical suture stitch. 15cm x 20cm.
Self-healing 02 back, 2023
bolts and nuts collected from battersea park road, victoria station, thames river
Screws and nuts collected from Thames riverside, Battersea park road and Victoria station, mostly at the traffic light junction, where buildings are being refurbished.
fastener made by london plane leaves and metal nuts
London plane leaves, founding fastening part, iron wires
3d print screws, london plane leaves, river mud
3d print screws mould, London plane leaves, river mud
screw
wood pieces collected from the river
collected boat wood piece, leaves, 3d print screws.
garden city

London Plane's Eyes


After London Plane's eyes were cut off,


It becomes a smooth tool,


Still living material,


But better to use.


Like the people


No need for sharp, protruding eyes


just need to look like you have eyes



Peeled branches,


Whiter,


Like disposable chopsticks.


Are people disposable?

cut off the eyes of the branches
london plane eyes
london plane
london plane

Medium:

London plane branches, dye pasted cotton yarns, wires, clay.

Size:

10cm x 10cm x 12cm
An unstable structure of clay and branches cross-braced, connected by a hair in the middle.few draping needles stuck in the clay
'The Relationship seems stable', 2022Hair, needle, clay, London plane branches.
Few draping needles stuck in the clay
'Blame'Shooting the sculpture from different angles, the branches attached to the clay look like two faces accusing each other.
'Blame'
'Time management‘. Sculptures that can be grasped in the hand. Made by clay, nails, discarded plastic threads
'Time management', 2022Clay, nails, discarded plastic threads collected from Battersea Park Road. 18.11.22
I display my objects on the wall and along the skirting line of the floor. Some of them are small and caught in the crevices.
blank
sculpture setting
edge
blank
surgical suture stitching
surgical suture stitching
fabric in the crevices
dye paper
nature dye
my thames river. 2023
My Thames river. 2023