When you think of performance, you think of dance. And when you think of painting, you think of canvas. But what happens if you find a way to combine that, so movement and painting? This is exactly what JANINE C SAUL does with her magnificent art by painting on fabric, positioning it in a special way or letting it flutter in the wind. The result is a very interesting mix of painted artwork, which at the same time creates its own show by moving through the air.
JANINE C SAUL has developed her style over the years, she tried new techniques and combinations and especially her travels around the globe contributed a lot. She is an incredibly empathetic person and has a sensitive feeling for people and the world around her. And that is exactly what she also tries to reflect in her art. Therefore a painted picture on a canvas is not enough, more senses and dimensions have to be combined and through her textile art which is moving in the wind she creates a whole new way of looking at things. And indeed, it is colorful, touching and moving.
We spoke with the creative artist in an interview about her works, ideas and projects. If you want to know more about JANINE C SAUL and her creative world, keep on reading. In between you will find a variety of photos and videos of her great works of art.
You are an abstract textile artist. That means you work with fabrics and paint them or make installations and formations out of them? Tell us more about your art and what you create.
Well, it means that I work with textiles in an unconventional way. Specifically I specialise in screen printing. I have been challenging the traditional linear formula of the screen-printing process through manipulating screens, creating resists and developing new dye formulas. All of which contribute to an experimental practice which allows me to work with textiles in an abstract and conceptual way. Allowing me to implement my discoveries in technique to create form-focused, textured and layered outcomes rooted in conceptual depths, philosophical ideas and emotion. This practice breeds textile pieces that are rich in a conceptual message so usually this goes hand in hand with using them to create spatial installations and formations that also support the conceptual idea and realisation of space. I feel that textiles within a space are very powerful because they can transmit a feeling and a mood so I like to cultivate this idea and work with using these textile pieces to bring a sense movement, perspective and a soft intervention to make us question the space and reveal something new to us that exists in the invisible or visible. However beyond using my works as a dynamic collection to create installation pieces, each piece also beautifully stands on its own and in its own right so they offer this idea of being one and different at the same time. Playing with the philosophical ideas this interconnected web, all different and unique but also a sum of a whole.
When did you start with art and how did you come to choose textile materials? Tell us more about your artistic career.
Art has always been something I have been attracted to from a super young age, it was the thing I was always ‘good’ at in school and enjoyed the most so it made sense that it was the path that I followed. I remember being a bit lost on what to do after the age of 18 and I was advised to look into art foundations. Which at the time were much more accessible and were funded so it was a great option to do a fun year of experimenting with all the different pathways that come under art and design to see what I liked the most. Within this year I discovered textiles and it was an instant love. Textiles included everything I was already interested in, my background was fine art so I had this flavour for drawing, painting and concept but I was experimental and very interested in texture. So textiles encompassed all of this, from drawing and discovering the conceptual idea through process to bringing the ideas to life through a particular technical process and creating works that has a more tactile essence. I am also a more sensitive person so I was always more tactile with touch of fabrics, smells, tastes, sounds etc, so textiles was also a way to have this outlet. For me it became very obvious that textiles was almost you could say destiny for my particular being and so I applied to continue learning and expanding this practice at Chelsea College of Arts to do my BA in Textile Design. Again in my BA this first year is experimental to discover which particular technical process we are most attracted to within the different pathways, and this was when I realised screen printing was my particular perfection. From here everything began to expand and I felt I really found my way of expression through a linear process that I could take apart and recreate in my own ways and attraction.
Did you also paint on canvas yet or work with other materials such as wood or clay? So besides textile, do you also do other forms of art?
For me textiles is actually any material, when we talk textiles in my mind I think about every material around us and in our space as a textile. So I have experimented with all different types of materials from wood to metal, clay, sand, wool, cotton, canvas. All of which I still work with especially with printing as you can really print with anything and there are so many different processes for printing onto different materials. I do love printing also onto canvas because its a different feeling, the print sits more on top of the fibres and stands out more strong so it brings a different image and feeling to the space. But personally I found a really strong attraction for silk because it is a natural material so the colours I use are absorbed into the fabric making the design and expression become one with the fibres to really be inside the fabric and it is very interesting for the investigation of natural dying which is a pathway I find myself going down. As well as this its characteristics are very interesting for me conceptually because I create these very heavy textures with almost an aggressive motivation behind them so the silk really softens this and brings back a delicacy to the work and a softer integration into space. But also I feel that the process is always changing so I am always open to discovering new materials for different ways of working and to bring a different conceptual idea to the space. On a more personal basis I make a lot of works whilst travelling which are focused on using wood for carving and metal for wire wrapping more on a small craft scale, for jewellery and every day objects, bowls, spoons, pots, things like this so I would say I am always engaging in different materials and discovering what their particular potential is to manifest new creations.
How exactly do you paint the textiles? What colours do you use and what techniques? And which instruments? Do you do it with brushes? Some of them look also some kind of printed.
All of my works that can be seen on my website are all done in the process of screen printing. However I screen print unconventionally, I don’t use exposed screens with a pre set design. I use the screen as a tool between me and the fabric and use multiple different techniques to create different textures and resits on the screen which I then transfer to the fabric over stencilled forms that I make based on inspirations and ideas of the moment. I also experiment with different dye thickeners to change the consistency of the dyes and colours which changes the way they are absorbed into the fabric and the colour they leave behind. Some colours completely transform from when they are first applied to the fabric and when they are dried and fixed, its like total magic sometimes! I originally used to work with acid dyes which are stronger colours but chemical based so I began working with procion because they are more natural and bind beautifully with a seaweed extract. Now I am working on developing natural dyes which is a longer process to discover how to create the colours I want and to make them stay in the fabric. From my travels I have had the pleasure to learn with many amazing crafts people who use natural elements from the lands around them to develop beautiful colours so with these teachings I am well on the way to developing some strong colours that I am excited to begin using.
Important elements in your work are movement and space. On the one hand, the clothes fold or lie on top of each other in several layers, which creates further perspectives and three-dimensionality. At the same time, the pictures can seem very lively and moving when the clothes flutter in the air. Tell us more about this concept.
This concept is all about playing with perspective and bringing to life this idea that everything can change and shift based on our perspective in that given moment. I like the idea of transparency to show the layers in the space and forms becoming alive so for me its like a game of shape-shifting and exploring forms within forms, the invisible in the visible. Seeing the infinite possibilities and not being attached to a desired outcome or one specific way but being open to range of possibilities that may be far better than what I could have ever imagined myself. For me, I use my work as an outlet for different conceptual ideas and realisations I come to and one of my beliefs is that everything is alive, all the space around us is active and there is much beyond the perceived eye. So with this in mind I explore and bring these ideas to life by bringing these fabrics and forms to life, allowing them to move and breath, to be free and to allow them to take form. I believe when they do this it takes the control away from my vision and gives the freedom to the moment to reveal something beyond me or my control. This aligns a lot with more spiritual beliefs in the idea that I am not the sole doer but I am in a co-creation with this larger web of consciousness which has much guidance from the divine. With this is mind it allows me to be a vessel to receive and work together with rather than control or allow a false sense of ego to guide and control me.
Do you also paint streetart on walls in urban space? You wrote in your email that you recently painted a mural in Italy in the mountains. Do you do that often? Tell us more about it.
Actually, street art is a new love! the mural I did in Italy was the first of its kind. Ive done a lot of freestyle painting on clothes and on bodies at festivals but I had never done a large mural in a public space. It came about in a very spontaneous way, a town I was living in last year, creating artworks in, I revisited and felt like I wanted to leave a piece of me behind. The idea of a mural came, I proposed it and my friend who hosted me was totally in!. I think this was a great way for me to get out of my comfort zone and try something new. I really enjoyed this process of not being restricted to the limitations of printing and working in a totally new way, to be able to express the movement and the moment as it comes. This is something difficult in the print process as there are many steps to take before reaching the mark on the fabric. So working with this textured wall brought a beautiful fluidity in the process, new curiosities and many interesting realisations. In particular, I felt like I really faced a fear. With murals I think in my mind a type of pressure comes with it because it is in a public space. So for this I really faced it by also not making a plan and just trusting the moment and the inspiration. I couldn’t be happier with how it went it has lit a fire inside of me to do more. I think street are is so beautiful because you really share apart of yourself with the people, even in the conversations that appear whilst making them, there’s always a type of interaction with space. For me, I love this because a big part of my work is about space so it was a new way to explore space and what that can mean in different contexts and processes.
Tell us something about the exhibitions you have had so far. Some have been around London, but you’ve also shown your art in Italy and in the middle of the jungle in Mexico. And you did exhibit solo and in groups, how was it to exhibit alone and how is it in the group?
My most recent exhibition was solo and this took place in Italy Tuscany, in a space that I created a site-specific installation for. I loved this process because it was the first site-specific work I had done and it was an inspiration from all the time I had spent in that space, area, land with the people, food, culture, sunsets and sunrises. I loved the freedom to create entirely from my own vision, I had free rain to do what I wanted with the space, curation, feeling and atmosphere. This felt like the first time I was really given that trust to bring a vision alive and it motivated me more to working with spaces to continue seeing what the possibilities are. This differed from Mexico because I didn’t know what space I would exhibit in and there wasn’t much plan. This opportunity came spontaneously as I created 3 works before going to the jungle and they were rooted in the inspiration of going into the unknown. So I created them with this consciousness in mind and then went into the unknown to see what would appear. This also was an incredibly freeing way of working because what came from it was amazing. I encountered a landscape artist called Phillip Fuery at a gathering in the Jungle who was interested in collaboration on the installation. From here we found people to help put the installation up in the trees 9 meters high and somehow it all came together incredibly. For me, this experience was amazing to see what can happen in the space of unknown. It was interesting because any institution would need a plan beforehand of what would happen, when and where but this was all done in feeling the moment and space. And I loved the collaborative aspect of this because you are not alone and it feels like nothing is impossible when you are co-creating with others. So in that aspect I loved the collaboration because many minds coming together is far more powerful and motivating than one mind alone.
You have also won some prizes. Tell us more about them and for which projects you have been awarded.
To be honest I havent won so many prizes in my time, I always seem to come second hahaha. My dad always says its better to be second then come first to fast. I guess a truth rings in that. But I am grateful for being shortlisted for emerging artist of the year prize from Wells Art Contemporary in 2021. I also received an award from TED 10 sustainable design principle project in 2018 which was for a project I did called Handu, which was for an app created for creatives of all genres to find creative jobs that involve repairing and restoring spaces. Ranging from people wanting to redo/repair their space, objectives etc and wanting an artist to do something exciting and innovative. To also spaces and clients wanting commissions for when they have a vision of how they want something to look but not the skills to execute it so they hire people online to come and bring their vision to life. All based around refurbishing and fixing so rather than buying new, people are getting creative with the ‘old’. It was a very fun project and I enjoyed the graphic design aspect a lot.
Besides the exhibitions you also present your art in Live Projects. What do you mean by that? Is it a performance or a moving installation? Tell us more about the Live Print Events and those projects.
Live projects are more about ongoing and interactive projects. So Live Print for example are events where we print live for people at launch parties and things like this, on the spot type of printing, its a little more commercial this work but interactive and I enjoy people getting invested into the process and inspired by it. Other types of live projects involve ones that are ongoing, where there is research and particular locations. For example I have live projects in Peru and Bolivia, where I met with these 2 separate organisations and started learning with them on a co-creative and collaborative basis to see what I can bring to the space and how we can expand the projects through creative practices. Both these projects involve a creative pathway with the community and bringing a new process to the people to see how it can expand peoples creative practice and thinking. Considering the youth and future education systems. These places also form my ongoing research with natural dying as I learn a lot from the local senoras and people I have encountered in these places. So I would say live projects is more of an open ended research and collaborative project based genre. Another lovely example was a live project I did for IntoArt which is an amazing group of artists with disabilities, we did a 12 week programme of developing print designs through their own unique styles and then printing their works onto fabrics which then went into tailors hands to be made into garments and then exhibited. So this was a beautiful interactive and ongoing project. Since then the designs are continuously used and expanded on and I really hope to work on a new project with this group as it was pure joy.
You are someone who likes to travel a lot. Tell us more about your travels and the countries you have been to. Do you also connect travelling with your art?
I would actually say that art was always the drive for my travel. I am very informed by my travel, inspiration, space, realisations and alignment with core values which I then transmit through my art work and practice. So in its essence travel and art for me are completely symbiotic. I also have a particular drive for finding and connecting with places working in a creative realm with a creative intention, meeting with crafts people, natural dyers, weavers, printers, painters jewellery makers, fire performers, agriculture warriors, shamans etc. The range is so huge and all embody a new source of inspiration and lesson. So I take this as a strong reference in creating and I give full gratitude for what the process has presented me with and continues to present me with on every journey. I am very grateful to have been able to experience many countries over the past 3 years, from Mexico, Italy, Turkey, Columbia, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru as well as many others in-between but these ones I have spent a significant amount of time in and really taken inspiration from the source and core of these places. Informing me about many different aspects of the crafts and living. All of which helps me delve deeper into my process of creating, co-creation and continuing on the path of endless discoveries. To me this is the real flavour of art and this is where it all began and continues to expand into.
You like to experiment and to try new ideas. That’s great and it is also very interesting which kind of new ways emerge. Besides your art you have also the desire to make other people think and getting more aware and sensitive.
Yes, in a way I guess that is always an underlying subtle intention when creating because I think it is a pleasure and honour to be able to think. And in the process of making there are so many ideas and moments that appear that it’s almost an assumption and excitement sometimes to think that this can be transmitted to other people through the work and process of creation. I have however come to realise that as much as I wish to share through my work, I also need to manage the expectation of the desire to share and for people to receive because if I truly want people to authentically receive then it shouldn’t be through my expectations and desires for them but through their own desire and will to think and receive. If that makes sense. It’s more so coming to the point where I don’t want to make anyone think or do anything but allow them the space to do this if they have the will. As I said, I think it is an honour and such a gift to be able to think and expand through the practice of creativity but I also think that it is only a gift if you truly want it. So at the end of it all it’s not so much about what I want, but helping to sustain other people with where they are at and what they want from the moment.
You meant that everything is alive. I think so too, it’s all one and connected in some way. That means not only that you can take your impulses from anywhere, but that you can radiate them everywhere. Art has an effect and it can change people’s perspective and thinking. And I belive that you with your art, just like we with our platform, that we can have impact and influence on people’s minds for the good. By showing new possibilities, giving new impulses. But it is not easy. What do you say about it, how do you deal with it as an artist?
I think this is a really interesting point because at some degree, yes, everything is connected so in some way we can be connected to all sorts of ideas and inspirations from many directions and spaces. But I think that in a field of everything and nothing, nothing and everything, it’s important to begin clarifying what it is, we are connected to in our particularity. Yes, we are all connected in its weird and wonderful way but we also all have a particular authentic connection to something which is why we all manifest in this realm in our authentic and particular ways. So it’s also a means to discover what this particular connection is, where are the attractions, what am I taking my inspiration from and becoming very clear with myself on what I truly am and what I am truly connected to, so that I can be clear with what I am radiating back out. I think that the power of perspective is so strong and we have the ability to influence this so it’s really important to become clear with ourselves on what we are connected to and what we are transmitting. Probably this is the hardest thing in our lifetime to do, to become truly clear. But I think that making the endeavour to do this and become clear with ourselves and others is how we really start to have an impact for the better because we are better. The truth of our being will always liberate us and consequently those around us.
The world is currently in chaos in many places, but it probably always has been that way. How do you stay so positive and creative? What gives you the strength to think so positively and creatively? Although we as „mankind“ react in such a way. What do you believe in and what gives you hope?
The thing that gives me hope is that I believe in the perfection of life and I trust the process. I trust in the divine guidance and somehow, even if I cannot see it, I trust in the way it works and what we all have to go through collectively. So I would say its not so much that I think only positively and don’t see or feel the negative but I prefer to observe to negative and see the potentiality in it rather than get lost in it. I believe that when we get lost in the negative then it becomes us, but if we can observe the negative, see what it is presenting but not let it capture us then we can find the power in it. Hold the prayer, hold the faith, hold the trust and the truth. I feel, that there is always some form of beauty born from chaos, even if it’s hard to see, accept and feel, somehow the beauty comes. So its not to run away from the chaos and only see the beauty viva versa but to trust that both are necessary for the ever evolving experience of consciousness and in that I find a huge source of inspiration. These concepts of life are what keep me creative because they themselves are creativity. For me consciousness is creativity.
Perhaps it is also exactly what you can see in the movements of cloths in the wind. The back and forth, the up and down. The dynamic that you mentioned before. When I read your messages, I noticed how emotional you are in your work and how passionate you are. That is very nice, but unfortunately there are far too few people like that on this planet. A few people have so much energy, are so senstivie and empathic, and then, so many others are overwhelmed by the situation, are aggressive and the other way around. Still I think that being creative gives you energy and at the same time you can motivate others to be creative themselves. This in turn gives the others as well again motivation. It’s about postive energy, to do something good, to create, not to destroy. If we could, we all should infect each other with positive creativity. Like with a virus. But a creative virus.
Hahahaha! I love the idea of a creative virus for sure! I think creativity is a means to start thinking differently and this is a motivation to change ourselves positivity which naturally is contagious. But I do also think everything in moderation. I don’t think creativity can exist without destruction and destruction can exist without creativity. They are like different sides of the same coin. In an ideal utopia we exist outsides of these laws of polarities, of opposite forces working against each other but for the exact same thing and we are all able to rise above this projection of positive and negative into the space where what these opposite forces are creating is actually a neutral space where the cycle of life is moving in alignment with the laws of nature and the divine order. Here we can create endlessly and bountifully but I think it’s a journey to get there and we all have much to learn before we can be in this truly harmonic structure of existence.
What are your plans for the next year? Are there any projects or exhibitions coming up that we should already write in our calendars? We are curious, tell us more about your ideas and your new plans.
Well the next year is looking exciting but I haven’t got anything in the diary 100% yet, it’s all still coming together. For sure there will be new work to come as I am full of inspiration and bursting at the seams to make some works but there are also projects lined up in Bolivia, Peru and India so just trying to coordinate them and how to manage all projects within the year…this may be more of a 2 year project hahah. When things are more concrete I will be sure to update you!
If you could choose a place where a work of art of yours should hang, which one should it be? Maybe your creative scarves on the Eiffel Tower in Paris? Or on the Statue of Liberty in New York? In both places it’s at a lofty height and it would certainly be interesting. But are there places that would be kind of a „wish“ for you to have an artwork there someday inside or at a special place outside?
Yes! Naoshima in Japan is an Island with incredible architecture, the architect Tadeo Ando has built some of the most beautiful works I have seen that integrate themselves into the landscape and use the light and the way it changes in the space. For me this is a dream space. The architecture is so precies, open and plays with the boundary of man and nature, harmonic existence and using the natural light in the space with the way it moves and changes. For me this place was an opening and inspired so many ideas and my practice that it’s like the highest point I could dream to see my works.
In conclusion, I would like to ask you a question that I ask almost everyone. Because it’s about motivating the others, like our readers here. Among them are many interested people, but also many artists. Many who have been doing this for a long time and many who have just started. And there are also many people who have not yet discovered their creativity, some who struggle and try to figure out their way, sometimes you just have to give them a motivational boost. So: what advice would you give, especially to new aspiring artists?
You know, I think no matter what point we are at, that is always a battle to continue to motivate ourselves, stay inspired and remind ourselves that our work is worthy. But what I would say I do is that I really truly trust the process and trust where I am at, I trust that when I struggle is also when I can birth many amazing ideas and no matter what I encounter, it is there to make me grow. I try to not be so attached to everything in the process but to always be grateful for what is appearing and for how lucky I am so be able to be experiencing life through this pathway and to be open to what appears and other forms of working. To not get stuck but to be adaptable to the moment and what is it presenting to us. To be true to the present moment and ourselves so that we can make the most of it. There is potentiality in everything so I guess my idea is just to see the potentiality in it all, find the lesson and see what it can transform itself into. By actively participating in the process rather than sitting back and waiting for things to happen, not allowing the mind to trap us into endless thoughts and to just go for it to see what can appear. At the end of the day, non of it really matters unless you can take the deeper lessons that come through which shape the people that we are. That is the true magic of it all, how what we do influences us and what we become as a result of it. Do we become bitter or do we become better. No matter what we do in this life we will always face these questions, the main thing is to listen to ourselves and do what truly resonates and grow from there.
INFOTHEK
Artist: JANINE C SAUL
Website: https://janinesaul.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janinecsaul
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@janinesaul6324
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