Matty Smith – Dancer

Fleeting images portray the sense of something but at the same time leaves the imagination free to fill in gaps and build personal narratives. Sometimes those fleeting images are found inside my mind and sometimes in the world around me. Through the time spent weaving what was originally a momentary instance, I continue to explore this duality of what is represented physically as well as what might be implied.

I often find myself describing an image through words rather than through sketches or other visual media – and the concept of ‘verve’ initially struck me as bound up in language rather than imagery. In approaching a design for this exhibition, I experimented with the use of an AI tool (Photo Lab) which takes words and generates images from them. Having collaborated with the AI tool to create a basic image I then developed it further into the finished design for a woven tapestry. In doing so, size was a challenge as the notion of ‘verve’ comes across to me as something large, almost overwhelming. So, scaling the image whilst retaining its impact was a major consideration. ‘Dancer’ was woven on a wooden frame with warps set at 5 ends per centimetre. Wool yarns were used for the background and silk for the figure.