11 November 2011

Into the Fold with Woven Image

Sydney artist Marcelle Robbins is Woven Image’s newest Imagination Partner, creating a stunning installation entitled Into the Fold.

Since February 2011 Woven Image have been engaging artists and designers as Imagination Partners, to explore their products and stretch their possibilities to the limit.

Their latest collaboration is with Sydney-based artist Marcelle Robbins, known for creating fantastical interior and exterior environments through photography, paper art, sculpture and installations.

Robbins was let loose on a Bondi rooftop with reams of Woven Image's Kirigami outdoor fabric. Referencing Japanese art and paper cutting, she created a surreal beachside landscape of waves and angular forms, with a large origami crane presiding over it all.

"One of the first questions I had was – how much fabric can I have to play with?" says Robbins of her idea for the installation, titled Into the Fold.

"When it was apparent that I could have as much as I needed, the size of the installation grew and grew. It was my intention from the beginning to cover/wrap a surface either indoor or outdoor; when I found out the Kirigami fabric was made for outdoors, that's when I made the decision to create a shore landscape on the building rooftop. As for the crane, a water bird – its influence came from the angular design of the fabric."

Although Robbins is well-versed in creating outdoor installations, the project was not without its risks.

"I have always played around with interior and exterior environments in my artistic practice," she says.

"It can be stressful, installing something like Into the Fold and being so dependent on the weather. My team and I were lucky that we only had a little wind to battle in the morning when installing and then the day opened up to beautiful skies!"