Ruth Laskey
Circles
May 2022
Huxley-Parlour Gallery
Extract ---
For her debut exhibition with Huxley-Parlour and her first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom, Ruth
Laskey presents a suite of seven new weavings from her Twill Series: a sustained exploration of form,
colour, and process that has defined fifteen years of artistic production. Her latest body of work,
entitled Twill Series (Circles), comprises seven of Laskey’s largest weavings to date, each featuring
three distinctly coloured circular motifs within a larger rectilinear colourfield.
Using hand woven and hand dyed fabrics, Ruth Laskey makes minimalist textiles with a unique
internal geometry, mediating formal themes of shape, palette, and material. Her work has been
described as building on the lineage of Bauhaus artists such as Anni and Josef Albers - in particular
their experiments in textile and composition.
Each of Laskey’s softly delineated compositions reflects the intention and variation of the artist’s hand,
evoking the subtle irregularity of organic patterns. Despite being composed of entirely straight lines,
the facets of the circular motifs convincingly suggest curvature. There is also a central discrepancy
between Laskey’s use of cleft, acute, and angular shapes, and her use of medium - tactile fabric.
Here, Laskey’s artworks reflect the constant negotiation between constraint and invention, and the
continual exchange between human and loom.
In keeping with the elegant, self-imposed constraint that has defined the artist’s ongoing Twill
Series, Laskey’s Circles are rendered through contrasting regions of twill and plain weave – the two
simplest textile weave patterns. The diagonal ridges of the twill weave pattern distinguish Laskey’s
figures from their plain-woven linen surroundings, while adjacent regions of twill contrast not only in
colour, but in the orientations of their woven diagonals. The resultant weavings, though meticulously
procedural in their making and fundamentally linear in their compositions, are, paradoxically, painterly
and organic. Laskey’s foray into scale gives viewers the opportunity to see Laskey’s designs with
more detail than ever before.
In situ
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Installation: Ruth Laskey, Circles.
Extract ---
For her debut exhibition with Huxley-Parlour and her first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom, Ruth Laskey presents a suite of seven new weavings from her Twill Series: a sustained exploration of form, colour, and process that has defined fifteen years of artistic production. Her latest body of work, entitled Twill Series (Circles), comprises seven of Laskey’s largest weavings to date, each featuring three distinctly coloured circular motifs within a larger rectilinear colourfield.
Using hand woven and hand dyed fabrics, Ruth Laskey makes minimalist textiles with a unique internal geometry, mediating formal themes of shape, palette, and material. Her work has been described as building on the lineage of Bauhaus artists such as Anni and Josef Albers - in particular their experiments in textile and composition.
Each of Laskey’s softly delineated compositions reflects the intention and variation of the artist’s hand, evoking the subtle irregularity of organic patterns. Despite being composed of entirely straight lines, the facets of the circular motifs convincingly suggest curvature. There is also a central discrepancy between Laskey’s use of cleft, acute, and angular shapes, and her use of medium - tactile fabric. Here, Laskey’s artworks reflect the constant negotiation between constraint and invention, and the continual exchange between human and loom.
In keeping with the elegant, self-imposed constraint that has defined the artist’s ongoing Twill Series, Laskey’s Circles are rendered through contrasting regions of twill and plain weave – the two simplest textile weave patterns. The diagonal ridges of the twill weave pattern distinguish Laskey’s figures from their plain-woven linen surroundings, while adjacent regions of twill contrast not only in colour, but in the orientations of their woven diagonals. The resultant weavings, though meticulously procedural in their making and fundamentally linear in their compositions, are, paradoxically, painterly and organic. Laskey’s foray into scale gives viewers the opportunity to see Laskey’s designs with more detail than ever before.
In situ
Installation: Ruth Laskey, Circles.