Author: Anna Champeney
Anna Champeney launches new “Haiku” Art Textile series at Revelations, Paris 21-25 May 2025
Anna Champeney is delighted to be launching a new Art Textile series, “Haiku”, with SACo,
at Revelations at the Grand Palais Paris 21-25 May 2025
She is exhibiting alongside her wonderful colleagues at SACo, the creative community of contemporary makers united by a
commitment to mastery, design and innovation in fine Spanish craft (Stand 22).
NEW WORK – “HAIKU” SERIES
Anna´s new series is entitled Haiku, after the traditional Japanese poetry form written in 3 short lines.
The textiles seek to express the essential in a similarly minimalist or “close-up” way.
In these pieces the placement of every weft thread in the textile invites a conscious act of reflection.
Every change in the interlacements of the threads assumes a degree of visual power that is unusual in weave;
it is possible to construct a textile “poem” with just 3 lines of weaving echoing the 3 lines of text which comprise a written Haiku.
The visual effect of some pieces, similar to Japanese Ikat weaving, is a further homage to the attention to detail in traditional fine Japanese craft.
A NEW DIRECTION IN WOVEN ART TEXTILES
Haiku represents a radical new departure in Anna´s textiles, confidently pushing weave into a new, expressive territory
with the development of a sensitive and personal approach to woven textile language.
Some of the works possess a strong oneiric quality with the delicate fragility and beauty of cobweb.
WOVEN NARRATIVES IN TEXTILE ART
If Anna is using weave as metaphor then she is also using textile narratives which double back to the very language of loom-woven threads itself.
She uses weave to create pieces which question textile´s own origins as text (from texere in latin, “to weave”).
She speculates about the very origins of language and its potential as alternatives to words-based language,
as with the complex pre-Hispanic Inca Quipu knotted inventories which have inspired her work.
ON PROCESS
Anna has been a strong proponent of reflective, materials-based textile practice in Spain for decades,
allowing threads and processes to interact with her ideas and concepts to influence the final work.
Thus Anna works “in direct dialogue” with textile materials and processes on manual looms,
exploring happy accidents, and practicing alert and non-judgmental but analytical observation.
Anna consciously seeks out effects that weavers around the world have experienced and observed for millenia
– to harness them for their expressive and narrative potential.
See Anna´s Haiku series at Revelations, Paris – Stand 22
SACO – Sociedad Asociación Española de Artesanía Contemporánea
Acknowledgement: Anna is feels very fortunate to be exhibiting alongside her wonderful colleagues at SACo, and would like to thank them for all their hard work in organising the stand at the fair, in particular, Maria Eugenia
On Textile Languages / Sobre Lenguajes Textiles
Non-weavers often equate loom-based work with passing the shuttle.
Beginner weavers are often taken up with the mechanics of setting up the loom.
If curiosity is allied to observation and experimentation we start to notice and develop certain effects.
These can become personal vocabularies.
What then determines whether we create dictionaries?
Or poems?
Las personas que no conocen los procesos en telar – con frecuencia – piensan que “tejer es pasar la lanzadera”
Al comienzo de la formación textil con telar, se enfoca en la mecánica y procesos que forma la base.
Si se alia la curiosidad con observación y experimentación se empieza a darse cuenta de, y desarollar, ciertos efectos.
Estos efectos tienen el potencial de transformarse en vocabularios personales.
Pues, bien.
Pero.
¿Que determina si creamos diccionarios?
¿O poemas?
Arte Textil Contemporáneo (Contemporary Spanish Textile Art) A new academic year at Escola Massana, Barcelona, Spain
Artworks and processes by (from top left, clockwise) Almudena González, Emy Parra, Gal Gelbard, Sara Ortiz, and Andrea Ayala
October comes round very quickly after the summer and the start a new year of lecturing in Applied Arts at the Escola Massana Art School in Barcelona is always exciting.
As workshop leader, responsible for the Textile Module of the Postgraduate course, it´s fascinating to see how each year group evolves in different ways every year. As a postgraduate course the Massana course is particularly interesting, with students from diverse creative backgrounds – such as Industrial Design, Fine Art, Graphic Design or Photography (as well as students with non-traditional pathways into creative practic) come together. Each year there is a mix of Spanish and international students which is also stimulating. The course is unusual, in that as well as students specialising in one of the modules (Textiles, Glass/Ceramics or Jewellery) – they also have the opportunity to take part in Texile or Jewellery workshops in Term I. Hybrid projects are encouraged on the course and it means that students can really get the most out of learning from different specialists in the different fields and develop their work in new ways.
Each creative discipline has its own methodology, but often students are either near or complete novices, in terms of woven textile techniques as that´s not pre-requisite for study. Nor is technical mastery expected in a one-year postgraduate course, although the level reached by hard-working students is often impressive – matched by their ability to develop their own creative languages.
For many students – regardless of their creative background – it´s also the first time they will have experienced “Textile Thinking” in practice – a methodology I use on the course, involving merging conceptual / theoretical knowledge with hands-on, haptic knowledge gained by transforming textile threads and materials in a reflective and critical way. For me, facilitating and encouraging final projects using this methodology is the most interesting part of the course, enabling students discover their own textile language to express concepts and ideas that are precious to them, and relevant to the wider world and societies we live in.
This year the Massana has produced a short video postgraduate course (link below) – so why not polish up your Spanish (or Catalan) and spend a year in Barcelona to focus on developing your creative skills and learning how to learn and adapt loom-weaving to create dynamic, Contemporary Textil Art.
Anna Champeney
Anna Champeney en Milan: Earthcrafted Designs – una colaboración de SACo con Porcelanosa para el Salone del Mobile, Milan, Abril 2024
Anna Champeney Studio te invita a Milan para ver la muestra de 24 marcas y estudios de artesanía contemporánea, Earthcrafted Designs.
La muestra ha surgido como una colaboración entre SACo, y la marca española, Porcelanos, para coincidir con el Salone del Mobile, Milan.
Además de ver una selección de nuestros plaids y cojines de 100% lana merina, hay obras de cerámica, cestería, iluminación, sombreros, arte textil y piezas esculturales…..
Earthcrafted Designs representa la conexión armoniosa de los elementos naturales con la herencia excepcional del diseño español.
En un mundo donde la innovación y la sostenibilidad convergen.
Iloema
Cristina Vallejo, El Sur
Candela Cort
LZF Lamps
Anna Champeney Studio
Alvaro Catalán de Ocón
Henar Iglesias
Federico Antela
Vajillas de Ultramar
Jose Luis Bazan
Idoia Cuesta
Plaart
Marre Morrel
Siete Formas
Objet Particulier
Francesca Piñol
Atelier Aletheia
Mercedes Vicente
Marta Moore
Atelier Sagarminaga
Fernando Alcalde
Natalia Lumbreras
Mayice Studio
Ábbatte
Fechas: Earthcrafted Designs, abierto cada día del mes de Abril 2024, Piazza Castello, 19 20121 MILAN
!Mil gracias a mis compañeras y compañeros de SACo, y los colaboradores de Porcelanosa, por todos los esfuerzos para realizar una muestra extraordinaria!
