Artist Jade Walker Finds the Threads that Connect
Fiber artist Jade Walker redefines textile work.
Words by Abby L. Johnson Photos by Eric Morales
When one thinks of textile work, often it’s of knitted blankets and crocheted shawls handmade by family members whose physical presence has long since passed. Images of painstaking needlepoint created in the living room or the mechanical thumping of a sewing machine in a spare bedroom arise.
While fiber artist Jade Walker also thinks of home and the crafts that primarily women have mastered and passed down through generations when pondering the use of fiber, she takes her musings a step further.
Jade is fascinated by the connection between blankets and the body, in a multitude of settings. “I can sort of think of them as laying across a grandma’s lap the same way I can think of them being delivered on an emergency scene for someone who is coming off a trauma.” She enjoys exploring the universality of textile, noting, “It’s an elemental sort of building block of comfort that we all experience regardless of our place in life.”
Jade landed in Austin when she attended UT’s graduate program in sculpture, though her preferred medium is somewhat atypical in this realm. She started to pick up her various skill sets while obtaining her undergraduate degree in Florida, and it only made sense to carry that work into her graduate years and beyond. “I’ve always worked in fibers of some sort. That just seems to be my language,” she states matter-of-factly.
Jade works primarily in installations composed of both found objects and, of course, her mother tongue, fibers. Her East Austin studio in Canopy is filled with her favorite natural materials.
“I always come back to yarn, rope, string, anything that is skeined, that I can manipulate into something,” she explains but is sure to point out that she often finds inspiration beyond. Going back to her interest in the body, she recalls, “I had this weird little clock for the longest time because when I first found it somewhere, I [thought] this is probably the weight of my actual human heart. And there was something about that real relationship with my body and this object that I just needed it.”
There is a palpable sense of ingenuity and innovation in Jade’s work, perhaps deriving from her philosophy of not being bogged down by perfection. “These techniques of mine, I do not ever excel in them. You’ll look at my weaving and feel like, oh, it’s a very rudimentary way of working in a textile format,” she notes of her work, not to disparage the merit but to highlight that her sculptures and installations convey so much more than mastery of a skill. “I use a kid’s loom. I like the kid’s loom. I like the way that it looks. I like the way it gives me freedom. So even though I may spend a lot of time learning these techniques, they’re generally not to do a very traditional path. They’re more like one more tool in my tool belt,” she explains.
By implementing centuries-old practices in the context of pieces that explore contemporary issues, Jade both honors and breathes new life into the crafts of a bygone era.
Contact:
jadewalker.org
@jadewalker_studio
jadeloriwalker@gmail.com
