Artist: Mackenzie Kelly-Frère
Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Interview 95
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Interviews published by Gareth Bate & Dawne Rudman.
Biography
Mackenzie Kelly-Frère is an artist and teacher who lives with his husband Kristofer Kelly in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His hand woven cloth has been exhibited in Canada, China, Japan, Korea and the United States. Mackenzie was educated at the Alberta College of Art & Design in Calgary, Alberta, Canada (BFA 1998) and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (MFA 2005). He has written for several Canadian publications including Artichoke magazine and Craft Perception and Practice Volume III. Mackenzie is an instructor and the Associate Chair of the School of Craft + Emerging Media at the Alberta College of Art & Design, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. MacKenzie's website.
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Detail of one element: Air over land, 320 cm H, other dimensions variable. Linen, wool, steel, wind, knitting, felt. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
Tell us about your work?
My current work is focused on the intersection of natural phenomena and cultivated landscapes. Because woven cloth is the primary manifestation of my investigation of this conceptual territory, the human body and therefore human presence in these landscapes, is also implicated.
In my woven work I am interested primarily in complex patterning that may arise from interleaving sequences of random numbers. The online random number generator used in this work is driven by the atmospheric noise of lightning strikes. This link to natural phenomena is compelling for me, as it seems to conflate the digital and the natural. Ultimately the source of the integers I utilize to compose this work is immaterial to its intention, as I am more interested in drawing one's attention to the process of perception itself. I am intrigued that hints of repetition, or the occasional alignment of apparently scattered blocks of colour, may draw us to construct pattern and make meaning in that which we perceive.
My other work is somewhat more intuitive, emotional even. In knitting and felt I feel that I am able to get at the more essential nature of cloth. Pieces like Cairn or Air over land are more embodied somehow, rooted in the idea of cloth as caring gesture. Here I am thinking about everything from blankets to the sweaters knit for you by a relative. Though blankets or sweaters are not necessarily artworks, they contribute to our collective knowledge of cloth, embedding it with a powerful social and symbolic meaning.
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Noise 1204, 220 H x 78 cm W, silk, linen, hemp, weaving. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
From where do you get your inspiration?
For me, the impulse to make anything comes from discrete encounters with beauty found in the day-to-day experience of living. Sometimes it is the prairie landscape and other times it is in the materials I use or the fascinating complexity of textiles. As a teacher in an incredibly creative environment, I am often motivated by the work of my students or colleagues. "Inspiration" is a funny concept because I believe it gives too much emphasis to external stimulus, when a lot of truly great work comes from a kind of knowledge that is at once tacit and innate. Here I am thinking of the sort of inspiration craftspeople are very familiar with - a kind of inspiration drawn from making itself.
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Detail: Noise 1204, 220 H x 78 cm W, silk, linen, hemp, weaving. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
Why did you choose to go into fibre art and how did you decide on this medium?
Initially I was drawn to textiles because of the teachers I encountered as an undergraduate student. (This also led me to discover teaching as a practice.) Eventually this grew into an appreciation of the depth of knowledge held within this particular discipline. Cloth is not only an object, but also the material manifestation of social history and culture across millennia. One really couldn't ask for a more fascinating area to sink into and explore.
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Detail: Noise 1204, 220 H x 78 cm W, silk, linen, hemp, weaving. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
What other mediums do you work in, and how does this inform your fibre work?
I work with textiles exclusively and my work is always in or about cloth. Even when I am drawing, printmaking or documenting sculptural textiles in video, cloth is central conceptually and informs everything I do in the studio.
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Noise 1207 and 1208, two panels each 218.5 H x 52.5 cm W, silk, hemp, ramie, sumi, Jacquard weaving. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
What specific historic artists have influenced your work?
Anni Albers is perhaps one of the most significant artists for weavers because I believe she was one of the first to recognize the artistic potential of weaving. Albers also had an incredible influence as an educator for generations of modern hand weavers, first at the Bauhaus in Germany in the late nineteen twenties and early thirties and later at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. I was first drawn to Albers' work for its rigorous geometric abstraction and complex use of structures. Since then, I have come to admire her incredible fluency not only with woven structure but also pattern. Her works are really texts in cloth form. The sophistication of her work is truly astounding.
There are many other weavers I could point to like Lenore Tawney, Kay Sekimachi or Peter Collingwood. The work of each of these artists has been influential to me in different ways. Tawney's work demonstrates a steadfast simplicity, Sekimachi's a simultaneous delicacy and strength and Collingwood's work and writing overflow with technical innovation. Summarizing what these influences mean to a particular artwork or body of work can be difficult, as sometimes it is simply the recognition of fellow makers who have dedicated themselves to their work.
World of Threads Suggests:
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Detail: Noise 1207 and 1208, two panels each 218.5 H x 52.5 cm W, silk, hemp, ramie, sumi, Jacquard weaving. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
What specific contemporary artists have influenced your work?
Many contemporary artists influence me. The work of Lia Cook, or Christy Matson are immediately relatable to what I am doing in my own work, as they are both weavers covering similar conceptual and even technical territory. Others like Roni Horn or Louise Bourgeois are influential, not necessarily for the work itself but rather for the lucidity and veracity of their approach to working. Comparing Horn and Bourgeois side-by-side may seem odd, but I think that each woman demonstrates a kind of passionate commitment to work and research that I really admire.
As a teacher I am also greatly influenced by my colleagues at the Alberta College of Art + Design who demonstrate seemingly boundless patience and generosity in the classroom. It is difficult at times to separate one's work in the studio from the work of teaching art, which is in itself a kind of practice. Individuals like Laura Vickerson, Louise Lemieux Bérubé and Bill Morton have influenced how I share what I do with students.
World of Threads Suggests:
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Detail: Noise 1207, 218.5 H x 52.5 cm W, silk, hemp, ramie, sumi, Jacquard weaving. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
Tell us about your training, how it has influenced you and how you have applied what you have learnt.
I learned how to weave from Katharine Dickerson. Her approach to teaching weaving affected me greatly. She encouraged us to focus on understanding the tools and structures first. While traditional weaving instruction generally begins with learning this or that traditional pattern, Katharine empowered us to reverse engineer solutions for our ideas for artworks or wearable pieces. I must say that at first this resulted in some pretty strange looking work on my loom, but the experience of working with Katherine Dickerson was transformative to both my teaching and studio practice. My technical training in weaving from that point, both at school and independently has always been focused on the complex woven structures I remain fascinated with today.
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Detail: Noise 1207 and 1208, two panels each 218.5 H x 52.5 cm, W silk, hemp, ramie, sumi, Jacquard weaving. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
Talk to us about the Air over Land series.
Air over Land was originally conceived as an experiment. The work is comprised of three tubular cloth forms suspended in the prairie landscape near Delia, Alberta. Marci Simkulet assisted me with the knitted skeleton of each form over which a thin skin of felt was embedded. The pieces have been up since January 2013 and have begun to show some wear and tear. I anticipate that they will be up for a number of months in which time the wind and weather will deteriorate them considerably. I have been documenting the work with photographs and time-lapse video and will produce a bookwork and exhibition with the evidence of the time these pieces spent over the land. I have yet to resolve all of my ideas around this work, but feel like this work investigates some familiar territory - specifically fragility, mortality and our fleeting presence in the landscape. Future documentation of this work will be posted to my blog ArtClothText.
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Air over land, 320 cm H, other dimensions variable. Linen, wool, steel, wind, knitting, felt. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
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Air over land, 320 cm H, other dimensions variable. LKinen, wool, steel, wind, knitting, felt. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
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Air over land (material study), dimensions variable. Cotton, steel, brass, wind. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
You do a lot of teaching in the fibre media/techniques, etc. What gives you the most satisfaction as a teacher in this field?
Having the opportunity to work with people who are just discovering textile techniques is very satisfying. One of the reasons I teach is to try and share the thrill of making something by hand. At the same time, as I gain experience with teaching this initial impetus has expanded. As an educator in the visual arts, I am convinced that making and thinking are so enmeshed within each other and often what is really being taught in our studios in the School of Craft + Emerging Media, is a way of thinking through making, problem solving in the moment and pairing ideas with objects.
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Cairn, 280 H x 120 cm W, wool, plant dyes, felt. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
What role do you think fibre art plays in contemporary art?
Fibre art is contemporary art. Art work in craft media has been making its presence known for some time in contemporary art. I no longer find distinctions between media to be that helpful other than to provide context. Although I work resolutely within my chosen discipline, I feel that the conceptual scope of what I am doing extends beyond what is commonly understood as fibre art. Increasingly, I see students taking a broad approach, simultaneously embracing work that lands squarely within a particular discipline, and cross-disciplinary practices that are harder to define like performative craft or even craftivism. The fact that these things can coexist points to a new complexity to craft discourse that I find very exciting. The discourses surrounding craft are beginning to acknowledge the ways in which emerging artists are exploding conventions entrenched from the first waves of fibre art and other art practices informed by craft disciplines.
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Recollect 1, five panels each 125 H x 40 cm W, linen, plant dyes, kasuri weaving. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
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Detail of central panels: Recollect 1, five panels each 125 H x 40 cm W, linen, plant dyes, kasuri weaving. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
Tell us about your studio and how you work:
I work at home. Most of the processes I use require many hours to accomplish. I find it easier to engage with work over long periods of time at home. The tying of threads for a single kasuri work can take days or even weeks to accomplish and is best done in close proximity to a comfortable chair (and my family). Most of the dyeing that I do occurs just outside my back door on a hot plate. Three pieces in my recent Noise series were woven using the Jacquard loom at the Alberta College of Art + Design. I am likely to continue experimenting with this technology in concert with hand-tied kasuri patterning of my threads.
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Studio: Staining threads with sumi for Noise 1207. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
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Studio: Sumi for staining threads. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
Where do you imagine your work in five years?
I imagine that there will be more of it, and with some luck I will have been able to share it with few more people.
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Studio: Staining threads with sumi for Noise 1207. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
What interests you about the World of Threads Festival?
What struck me initially about the World of Threads Festival is the incredible draw it has generated bringing together artists from all over the place. There also seems to be a breadth of work represented in various exhibitions that is very impressive.
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Recollect 1 on the loom, Linen threads dyed with madder using kasuri technique. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
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Weft for Recollect 1, Linen threads dyed with madder using kasuri technique. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
Do you have any upcoming shows?
In February of 2014, I am mounting a solo exhibition titled Frequency at GalleryGallery in Kyoto, Japan
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Noise 1204 on the loom, Hemp weft thread dyed with indigo using kasuri technique. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
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Noise 1204 on the loom. Photo: M Kelly-Frère. |
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