Jennifer Shellard

Jennifer Shellard MA RCA Constructed Textiles Pathway Leader for BA Hons Fashion Jewellery at London College of Fashion. Recent exhibitions include: 2009 Fashioning Now exhibition: University of Technology Sydney Australia 2009 Design Plus symposium: Integration of Design and Science Light Materials Colour and Environment RIBA , London (poster presentation) 2009 The 8th International Conference of the European Academy of Design: Design Connexity conference Aberdeen. 2008, Research Narratives symposium Chelsea College of Art 2007 New Craft Future Voices; conference exhibition; Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee 2005 Visions in Textiles in conjunction with ETN Annual conference; Izmir Turkey .

Jennifer Shellard’s Light Cloth project explores inherent mechanisms of visual perception through a combination of hand woven textiles, colour, light and time. Funded by the AHRC in 2007, the research developed from an earlier AHRB undertaking which involved practical investigation into a range of light responsive, fluorescing, iridescent and reflective materials, as well as the exploration of a single, non-repeat hand woven image. Tensioned over shallow frames, the resulting installations used concealed U.V light to activate fluorescing elements of the textile compositions. In their final presentations these pieces challenged traditional notions of hand crafted textiles by integrating and harmonizing with technology to create a distinctive contemporary image. In this more recent work, externally directed light is projected onto a minimal section of the hand woven textile. The shard of light/animation is selectively and strategically positioned to accurately register onto the textile colour. Using specialist software, the projected movie evolves as a slow loop; gradating barely perceptibly through the spectrum; both affecting and enhancing the lit portion and – by simultaneous contrast - the surrounding unlit composition of the precisely engineered textile. Whilst colour perception and the self conscious experience of the viewer are key concerns of this time-based installation, the hand woven textile continues to play an essential role in determining the quality of the textile-light interaction. The deliberate and effective blending of technology has resulted in reciprocal components contributing to a unified outcome, so the means of achieving the colour change remains essentially unobtrusive By subjugating and concealing evidence of technology, the outcome succeeds in its aim to appear subtle and enigmatic. The viewing experience is at once intriguing – involving the adjustment of eye and brain to subjective colour change - and meditative since the gradation is by necessity gradual.