6 minute read
Jennifer Bell
Jennifer is a multidisciplinary artist, based in the sunny Queensland capital of Brisbane, Australia. Her unique work combines traditional art and textile techniques from around the world, along with her formal training in fine art photography and digital imaging.
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Born in the UK Jennifer moved to Australia with her parents in the late 1980s. Growing up she had watched her mother create amazing appliqué and pretty patchworks with beautiful fabrics and shiny threads. Helping to rummage through tubs of ribbons and boxes of beads are some of her fondest childhood memories; that love of textiles is reflected in her art practice today. Her father on the other hand was an engineer, always with a pile of photos of rusted metal and machinery from work, which she found were actually very beautiful. As an artist she combined these opposing elements early on - pretty fabric and threads with rust and peeling paint.
This blend is still used in her work today, traditionally beautiful subject matter like a landscape or still life, may in fact be made from images of things we tend to discard, such as post consumer paper or smashed glass mixed with patterned cloth and embroidery for example. Understanding that beauty exists in the imperfect, in the decayed and broken is fundamental to her work. A series of works created between 2012 and 2017 are collages made entirely from the patterned lining of security envelopes; this is a material we see and throw away everyday, overlooking it’s simple beauty. “If I can make someone pause for a moment, look at a work and think ‘Hey, wow, that’s actually xyz, who knew it was so pretty’ – then I’ve done my job” says Jennifer.
It is this ability to see beauty in the ordinary which is central to being an artist for Jennifer. As a child she was obsessed with the little, overlooked, patterns in nature and common everyday objects such as those found in rocks, in old maps or cracked earth. In her work layers of textures from peeling paint, tree bark, rust, lace and vintage maps combine to produce something new and beautiful; full of detail.
Jennifer’s unique combination of art, textiles, photography and digital work began when she undertook a degree in fine art at the University of Newcastle where she was immediately drawn to the digital imaging and photography component of the course. This meant a lot of work on the computer but with the labs on the other side of campus and a requirement to spend a certain number of hours in the studio, she would print out her digital art and continue working into it using the techniques being taught with the studio practice. Those traditional drawing and painting techniques began to mix with textile processes, the addition of thread, patch work paper and creating wall hangings - sometimes to the dismay of her tutors.
“There was still such a stigma around textiles in art back then” says Jennifer of her university experience in the late 90s. “I guess there still is today, although it’s certainly more common to see work incorporating sewing or sequins hanging on the walls of big galleries all over the world. The first time I sewed into a canvas the lecturers were not happy. In my first year I painted two large ‘patchworks’ and that didn’t go down well. So when I put a tiny amount of glitter along side some gold thread in one of my final year pieces – they went nuts. It wasn’t art, it wasn’t necessary. So in response, for my very last work, I gathered together just about every shiny, glittery, sparkly bit of bling I could find and I put it all together with paint and thread in a giant patchwork piece that filled a whole wall.... And you know what, they loved it?!”
“My work doesn’t fit neatly into one particular category of art. It can be frustrating trying to fill in details for online galleries or even entering a competition. Is it photography, is it collage, is it digital, is it textiles? and of course the big question facing artists who choose to work with these sorts of materials and techniques - is it craft? To me it is art, no question, but I do hear the word ‘craft’ being thrown around in reference to my work occasionally. In a good way, it usually takes people by surprise. In many ways it’s nice to be producing work that doesn’t fit in a little box, that may challenge someone’s perception of art vs craft, or of digital art for that matter. Perhaps that means I’m doing something right.” Of course computer work can be beautiful in itself but a print can sometimes lack the depth and dimension found in a painting or other mediums. It was this quest for something more three dimensional that led to Jennifer to experiment with practices such as paper cutting and paper weaving, something that has become a key characteristic in her work today.
Many of the weaving techniques Jennifer uses were first learnt while living in New Zealand and are based on her experience with traditional flax weaving. It was here that she opened her own gallery in the picturesque Wellington suburb of Island Bay and developed a love for landscapes producing many mixed media works of the local scenery. Eventually Jennifer based herself in London and travelled extensively taking classes in everything from pottery and printmaking to Japanese marbelling and paper making. Today she works as a full time independent artist from her sunny studio in Queensland, Australia.
A recent series titled ‘Kakadu’ involved weaving a single set of photographs taken in Kakadu National Park in Australia’s remote Northern Territory. Limiting the collection to this one group of images, Jennifer focused on the technique of weaving the photography. These highly patterned works explore the way we physically view our environment and highlighted the movement found on even the calmest of days. Some works are a combination of the original photograph mixed with strips of recycled and patterned paper; in others, the same image is woven back together sometimes with one version treated with a gloss varnish to help the water shimmer. “To me weaving perfectly lends itself to representing water. It can capture the movement and the shimmer, the little ripples even when the water is calm” says Jennifer. The weaving distorts and in some cases seems to pixilates the landscape. In some pieces delicate layers of lace mix with the photography like a veil of fine pattern over the landscape – this unique view is in fact how Jennifer sees the world.
The reason Jennifer’s work explores pattern and perception is influenced largely by her experience of a little known neuroophthalmological condition, which means she sees patterned dots in her visual field, continuously. These dots appear as a fine veil of dancing, kaleidoscopic colour that can never be turned off. Surroundings that may seem static and plain to others are full of movement and decoration. Jennifer shares this unique experience of the world through her art. It may be a view not perceived by everyone, but no matter how we see the world, pattern still exists all around us both man-made and naturally occurring; from the beauty and complexity of fractals in nature to the printed fabric of your clothing.
This year has seen a slight shift in direction for Jennifer’s work, moving from landscapes to still life. She is currently working on a series of works for a solo exhibition later in the year titled ‘Variegated’. As the name might suggest the work is centred around patterned plants and leaves, but variegated can also mean kaleidoscopic, intricate, detailed, patchwork and marbled – all strong features of her work. Starting with some larger scale paintings, which at first appear abstract, they are in fact figurative works based on the microscopic level of leaf patterns found on the surface and in cell structures. “I love looking at the world through a microscope” says Jennifer. “One of the great things about visual based search engines means you can be looking for reference material on a micrograph of a leaf and see a striking similar image, that turns out to be an areal photograph or a piece of knitted yarn. Patterns really are everywhere.” The work moves into the macro level with delicate paper cuttings of leaf venation, the vein patterns found on leaves. These are mixed with suminagashi, Japanese marbling ink and paper weaving. Then finally into a more common view of leaves but with still a focus on the amazing natural patterns that can be found in them, highlighted again through the weaving process and other techniques such as collage with lace and reclaimed embroidery.
