Simon Marks Textiles | 2007 ALILA UBUD OPENING

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11 August 2007

Alila Ubud Gallery presents "waxed . stitched . dipped" by Simon Marks

11 August 2007 – Bali – Ripples of waves in a dream, sunlight on the water, faces carved out of stone... These are some of the inspirations behind the handmade batik designs of Simon Marks, a British national and long time resident of Bali. Alila Ubud Gallery will showcase Simon's works in an exhibition titled "waxed . stitched . dipped", which will open on Friday, 14 September 2007 and continue until 1 October 2007.

The exhibition is a celebration of how stitch, wax and colour combine and contrast, becoming transformed into something to be worn, draped or simply admired. Simon is particularly drawn to the handspun-handwoven cotton of Tuban, its roughness providing a counterpoint to the crisp lines that can be achieved from batik and the fluidity of silk. He is as passionate, though, about the process as the end result. The coaxing of colour from root, leaf or bark to get the beautiful natural dye colours, the magical pungency of indigo, the wonder of getting a red – the most difficult colour to achieve – and the unmistakable warm and cinnamony smell of released wax on cloth. It's the process itself that always leads to further ideas and possibilities.

Simon's love affair with traditional textiles began soon after he journeyed to the East. Having studied theatre design at London's Central St Martins School of Art and Design, he spent many years working on costumes for productions at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and Cirque du Soleil among others. Touring with productions gave him a taste for the nomadic life and, in 2002, he travelled to Asia for the first time, where he became fascinated by the amazing array of costumes and clothing he saw in India, Thailand, Laos and Indonesia, and the textiles they were made from.

This fascination turned into an 'addiction' to learn all he could about the way these textiles were produced and the techniques involved. He travelled repeatedly to India to learn about block printing, embroidery and natural dyes, working with local artisans he met along the way. But it was on a trip to Indonesia that he discovered batik and everything he had learnt to date began to take shape.

In Bali, he came into contact with Threads of Life, a fair trade organisation that is devoted to the continuation of Indonesia's traditional textile arts and the welfare of the archipelago's indigenous weavers. Under the guidance of its master of indigo and other natural dyes, Simon was inspired to start creating his own designs, finally finding expression for all of his different strands of interest.

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Yessy Hidajat
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