STATEMENT

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Having been born and raised throughout the three maritime provinces of Canada, I am constantly enamoured with the industrial aesthetic of maritime objects as well as the traditional roots they are based from. From the vibrant yellow wire lobster pots, beautifully intricate factory-produced netting, meticulous fly-tying techniques and materials to the rigging on tall ships.

With a background in weaving, my current textile work explores the balance between machine technology, and traditional analogue processes. When a machine or tool is used to create a piece of work, there is a separation between the maker and the object. However what happens when the maker makes their machines and tools as well? Through the understanding of basic rope-making equipment, this knowledge allows me to follow and dissect the structure they are creating and develop new designs and theories.

 

Although I often romanticize the ‘way back when’ of analogue equipment, I wish for my work to remain in the contemporary. By using industrially produced materials, vibrant factory colours and unconventional combinations of historical and modern processes, I’ve expanded what was capable of being made beyond that of traditional textile processes. The tools and equipment themselves are also as important as the objects they’ve made.

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BIO

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Carley Mullally (she/they) is a textile artist and researcher currently based out of Nova Scotia. Their work focuses on the versatility of off-loom textile processes such as rope-making, knotting, crochet and braiding, and how they can be translated for a wider audience and used interdisciplinarily. 

 

While teaching various textile workshops as well as the Off-Loom Structures course at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Carley continues to work on collaborative research projects while simultaneously continuing their own art practice. 

 

Their aim is to continue pushing the boundaries of textiles and their applications, continuing to collaborate with designers, makers and engineers, and to encourage non-textile artists to use these structures in innovative ways. Each collaboration improves upon their own work’s methodology, helping to create an accessible language for understanding textile processes.