Kasia Breska

Work by Kasia Breska inspired by Bradford Collection Textile Archive collections  

My research into the archive collection has a strong and inseparable connection with a site specific character of the artwork. My theme is nature and the connection and disconnection with it. Other issues involve: a sense of location and belonging, displacement and detachment and a definition of home.

From all the archive's items I had a chance to look at, I was mostly intrigued by the loom books and specifically two of them - the ones dated from 1904 and 1910. The mechanical illustrations and schematic drawings of the weaving machines appealed to me as a sort of 'code', a 'language' or even a 'map'. This has led me into the new interpretation of the images - I saw deeply appealing and balanced compositions and possibilities of joining or 'mixing' them together into a new meaning.

I copied dozens of the illustrations and used them as the basis of my own compositions, joining them with other elements like grids and collaged elements. The next step is to accommodate those compositions (or maps) as a possible outdoor projects."