Anna Fiedler’s wire weavings evoke the bodily form of the torso; its structure and suppleness, its symmetry and malleability. The body, however, is also an idealised form – constrained in the social imagination by moral and aesthetic values.
Each piece is woven with paper-coated floristry wire and deadstock yarn. The yarn is crimplene, a polyester fiber that was invented in 1959 with the purpose of making crease-free women’s clothes. The fabric, which was found to be unbreathable and suffocating, was discontinued ten years after its first production. In the context of these works, the yarn takes on the form of a bodice – a restrictive undergarment designed with the superficial idealism of the female figure. The wire weft reinforces the structure of the bodice, but the forms have also been manipulated to create protrusions, curves and softness. Through these works, the body is figured as an unwieldy organic form bound by and in resistance to the social ideals that confine it.
The work is shaped with her body to create a sculpture made with wire. She has always felt a disconnection to her body, some parts more than others that she doesn’t look at and covers up. Working with the disconnection to her own body she uses different parts to physically mold the wire, connecting back to herself in these moments by pressing into and forming curves, lines and shapes. Anna transfers her emotions to the wire by allowing her body to express itself with movement. The end result creates a body-like structure and expressive form. Used as a form of somatic therapy by creating an object to connect back to self.
Anna employs a unique practice of painting the warp threads prior to weaving in the weft, a method that disrupts the premeditated and calculated techniques associated with traditional weaving, whilst maintaining a devotion to traditional structure. Here, vertical lines painted at even intervals onto the warp signify the body’s symmetry. However, these straight lines are molded to the curve of each work and muddled softly by the weave. What we see and feel through these weavings is the tension of holding in, and of letting go. The sensation of relaxing and digesting. The restriction of the waist and the loosening of the stomach, its protrusion. A subconscious daily act.
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@annafiedlr
All bags are hand woven and painted. Paint and sizing can vary slightly.
Stockists
That Looks NZ
Tangerine USA