Margo Selby is a textile artist making works in weave on a 24 shaft dobby loom, in tencel, silk, cotton and wool. The works she is showing at COLLECT 2021 are hand woven, strected, framed and wall-mounted.
VEXILLUM IV, 2020 Mixed yarns: Tencel; silk; cotton; and wool 170 x 180 cm ZOETROPE, 2021 Mixed yarns: Tencel; silk; and cotton 3 panels, each 40 x 120 cm These works are both painterly, in regard to the optical mixing of pure colour – and sculptural, due to the physicality of woven thread as a mode of construction. They are stretched and wall-mounted but operate as objects rather than pictures or decoration – they are non-representational, and their colours are integral rather than applied to a surface. Formal aesthetics are paramount, and in constant intersection – colour, form, shape, orientation, rhythm – the grammar of Margo’s language.
The VEXILLUM series is a leap in scale from the intimacy of Margo's art to date – the human to the architectural. Works I, II and III were exhibited at COLLECT 2020, and won the Collect Open Award. VEXILLUM IV, hitherto unexhibited, is a fourth work of that series – and stands alone as a herald. ZOETROPE is perhaps a more tentative statement – smaller in scale and more fragmented. The difficulties of this past year have provoked some introspection. The panels, each a discrete piece, are framed separately; the air between each is activated – they flicker and animate.