JANE BANBURY

The experimental art-making used in my designs redefines the standard meaning of the materials via a kind of aesthetic dismemberment. Dissecting these materials creates a deeper understanding of the objects and changes the meaning from, for example, a discarded, stomped-on cigarette butt left at a bus stop, to soft, caramel-coloured, enigmatic fluff. Upon further investigation, it is found that each filter is composed of fine, vertical threads. These can be unravelled and turned into a thin weave, or taken apart entirely and reconstituted into a gentle beige felt. These found materials often carry with them a surfeit of meaning: dire circumstances, addiction, instability, infirmity, vulnerability. Using a ‘bricoleur’ process (as defined by anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss), the artworks defamiliarise these uncomfortable materials through a process of opportunity, uncertainty and serendipity.