Philip Beesley
On Growth And Form: Textiles and the Engineering of
Nature
Textile Museum of Canada
June 6 - October 11, 2001
ISBN 0-9684411-9-X
"I am not interested in policing the boundaries
between nature and culture - quite the opposite, I am edified by
the traffic.” [1]
On Growth and Form : the Engineering of Nature explores
the extraordinary qualities of a new generation of textile materials,
illuminating the science that makes them possible and the poetics
they express. The phrase "On Growth and Form" refers to the 1917
text of the same title by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson. Thompson studied
systems of form and structure running throughout species of nature.
The eloquence of his writing and the extraordinary illustrations
in that text had a profound effect on generations of artists and
contemporary thinkers. This exhibition honours that legacy by extending
Thompson's way of thinking into the new art and science of hybrid
materials and structures. The structures of nature are a fundamental
source for this collection of new work. Some of these fabrics employ
natural processes, flexing, responding to sensory stimuli and transforming
themselves. Others take their form by imitating the organizations
of microorganisms and cellular tissues. The synthetic materials
that result come from opening the boundaries between organic and
artificial forms and ultimately involves making living things. The
projects here speak of an uncanny plastic nature.
