World Will Ideas

“World Will Ideas” is a hand-dyed, machine and hand embroidered fibre stretched artwork. It was created from 24 feet of hand-dyed silk fabric and is made up of over three hundred intricate double pleats. Each pleat has been hand embroidered along the edge in silk and cotton threads.

The artwork actually began life as a kilted skirt. As I worked on this dancing skirt, I realised fairly quickly that its potential and power lay not in its being a kilted skirt but as a pure work of art. The decisive moment came when laying the textile in a circle on the floor and viewing it from a distance. The raw material and surface texture came alive, spilling over with energy and emotion. I then had to create a pure work of art. The piece had spoken.

The colour scheme of this piece runs through a wide gamut of reds. This has been achieved by hand-dying and overdying, building up darker areas and allowing sizzling reds to remain. This adds to the undulation of the piece as do the shadows created by the relief texture. The colours move through the spectrum of reds; from deepest darkest burgundy through to the hottest scarlets and, finally, burnt orange. They symbolize the increasing heat and energy being released by the dancer.

The circle represents the cycle of chi in motion. This mysterious invisible energy force, chi, is in constant motion, flowing through the dancer and, through the power and emotion of dance, being absorbed by the watcher through the visual impact of the performance. One of the ways we take in chi is through the very air we breathe. Possibly the power and emotion of the dance energises the chi in the air and this life force enhanced chi enters the viewer or watcher. Alternately, perhaps the power and emotion of the dance stimulates the chi within the watcher. However it happens, there is a cycle of chi in motion and “World Will Ideas” is circular in shape so as to represent this cycle.