Cubitts x Dalia James
Invited by Cubitts to design a lens cloth as part of their charity lens cloth initiative, the brand felt that our shared appreciation for modernism and the Bauhaus School in particular. The brand works with an artist twice a year to offer their customers a pocket-sized piece of artwork for their glasses. I worked with the brand to pick a piece of my work, and decided to focus on an area of my piece Untitled I (2022) that would give each customer a sense of my work. The piece was photographed and printed digitally, the result is a wonderful cloth that shows the detail of the woven structure of the artwork.
The piece is part of a triptych that explores more earthy tones. The colour palette was not formed , a departure from my usual process of referencing the world around me. I sometimes have groups of colours form in my head and this was the first time I decided to use one such group as a starting point. The series was created on a hand loom and all the yarns were dyed by hand. The work was created using two types of yarn, spun silk yarns and bamboo, yarns that I frequently use in my work.
As part of the collaboration, the lovely Cubitts team came to my studio for a little chat to find out more about me and my practice and produce a short film. I was slightly petrified as I dislike public speaking or talking about myself but the team were so nice, and once I got over my nerves actually enjoyed it. I was also delighted to run a weaving workshop at their Spitalfields store in London, fittingly the shop was a former weave shed and still had part of one of the punch cards on display.
I thought hard about which charity to chose, I knew that I wanted to pick an Arts organisation that sort to encourage minorities, young black people in particular, into the Arts. I chose Chineke! Foundation as their principle aim, through Chineke! Orchestra is to create opportunities for black and ethnically diverse classical musicians in Britain and Europe. Founder Chi-Chi Unwanoku mission to increase the representation of Black and Brown classical musicians really resonated with me. I have found it very difficult to forge my creative career in the Visual Arts, not just in terms of finding the opportunities and the money required to start my practice but also mentally. It has been hard to stay focused and positive at times creating work that straddles Craft and Fine Art not knowing anybody else who looks like me having forged a similar path . It is so important that young people from underrepresented groups who want to pursue a career in the Arts, see people like themselves in the roles . I think the Performing Arts, and classical music in particular, is much further behind in terms of representation than the Visual Arts, organisations like Chineke! are essential in showing that Black and Brown people have both talent that is globally recognised, and platforms from which to show it.
The cloth is available via Cubitts, with all profits going to Chineke! Foundation.