So I going through my twitter account and stumbled upon an artist creating amazing works with just with fabric and a clothes iron. In all honestly though I’m taking the word of an article written about him. I don’t know for sure, my guess is that there is something more involved than just an iron. Regardless, when you see his work you’d no doubt question whether it was fabric or some other medium.
According to his web site,
“Benjamin Shine studied fashion design at The Surrey Institute of Art and Design and Central St Martins in London. In 2003 he set up his creative studio, where materials, techniques and constructional ideas continue to inform his diverse portfolio and multidisciplinary approach.”
Due to copyright concerns I’m not going to add any images into this post, but you can find some of his work on Instagram.
My own take on his work is that I’m fascinated that he is able to create something so unique in a world of 7 billion people. How is it that I hadn’t heard of anyone doing this before? Although, maybe he isn’t the first, maybe he is just the first to succeed with it. His artistic talent coupled with the innovation may have worked together to accomplish something that no one before him was able to. After all it’s not like he is using technology that has just become available.
The use of fabric appears to create more of a sculpture than painting, but from a distance it genuinely appears to be attempting to be 3D. Indeed, there are images of his work hanging in galleries that look like paintings, and my guess you probably wouldn’t be able to see that it was constructed of fabric unless you were viewing from the side. He states that he strives for his works to appear as smoke.