hannah waldron interview

top image: furoshiki design for link collective japan, photo martin holtkamp

hannah waldron is a british artist and designer that works between stockholm and london. her work explores the textures, patterns, forms and structures of her surroundings, and has an interest in the development of landscape over time.

DB: please could you tell us briefly about your background?HW: I graduated with a degree from the university of brighton in 2007 in illustration and spent the next three years exploring that field, working on a variety of different projects and producing prints and books and exhibiting. in 2010 I spent 6 months in berlin where I discovered the woven work of anni albers and gunta stolzl at the bauhaus archive and fell in love with their work.

on returning to london a friend who had studied some weaving was looking at my work and suggested that my mark making, which used a grid structure with a lot of horizontal and vertical lines and hatching would translate well in to the process of weaving. she gave me a quick lesson and I was hooked. I bought a small loom and began experimenting and immediately could see lots of potential for exploring ideas in that process.

NYC furoshiki

DB: how would your describe your style?I am interested in the reflection and mapping of experiences particularly in relation to places. I draw upon a personal visual vocabulary of forms and mark-making that aim to distill information into its most essential with the aim to make images that communicate broadly and that might lead to personal interpretation.

venice furoshiki

DB: what has been your most challenging brief to date?HW: I just completed a map for the edinburgh art festival which I found very challenging because normally my maps are my own interpretation of places, without too much need for accuracy and obviously this map has to be really precise and user friendly. so it was good to stretch my brain in that direction. but I think every brief is challenging as each other because you always want to do your best and push on a bit further with every job.

map tapestries

DB: how do you see your work evolving in the future?HW: in the past few years I have been realising that by studying and experimenting with different materials I can let my images travel into different processes, so recently it has been in textiles, both printed and in woven structures. in the future I will explore other materials and would also like to investigate how my work can relate to spaces and interiors, I’ve done some site specific work but I would like to collaborate more in this way as I find it very rewarding to work with other people in different fields.

kreuzberg tapestry

DB: what medium / material do you enjoy working with the most?HW: at the moment it’s weaving and in particular the tapestry technique. it’s like painting for me. it’s a linear and technical process so it’s quite methodical and controlled but also rhythmic and full of joy. I enjoy the constraints of working within the grid but there is so much freedom for what can happen within that space.

houshi onsen skecthes and materials

DB: what are the main differences between art and illustration for you?HW: I am not really interested in disciplinary boundaries.

houshi onsen tapestry on the loom

DB: who or what has influenced your work the most?HW: I really got a lot out of looking at the artefacts of different civilsations and practises outside of my culture and then tracing that aesthetic back to cultural differences while also seeing universal values. I am very interested in japanese storytelling and also the values of modernist thinking and distilling information down to its most essential.

houshi onsen tapestry on the loom

DB: how do you think the popularity of online resources have influenced design being produced today?HW: there’s a lot out there and a lot looking the same! but it’s hard to say if that’s always been the case and now you just are aware of it more, or if people are looking too much at each other. I definitely think there is a zeitgeist which we are all influenced by, but as long as you are not just looking at these resources, and you have your own unique influences outside then it’s good that these resources exist.

houshi onsen tapestry

DB: besides your professional work – what do you have a passion for?HW: at the moment just learning as much as I can, aside from textiles etc. I’m trying to get a fuller understanding of the systems and the mechanisms of the world and how we can try to imagine alternative and hopefully better ways of doing things, and how the skills I am trying to achieve now can be useful to others. and of course all the regular stuff that makes life good, if I can go swimming in a lake or the sea or riding my bike down a big hill often enough then I’m happy.

hannah waldron with her houshi onsen tapestry