The series of works Mardi has produced for “Sampler” have predominately started their life in the moving image; mostly that of music film clips.
“Sampler” translates images of female pop stars in fleeting and sometimes candid moments into the traditional and centuries unchanged medium of woven tapestry. Using a variety of very low tech methods to obtain source material, pixilated images are transformed into the corresponding beads and pixels of tapestry, creating an interrogation between the plastic pop world and artisan techniques.
“I’ve been interested in images of women, particularly in contemporary life for quite some time. As a child I was a bit obsessed with watching music film clips, studying what they were wearing and emulating their choreographed moves in my own amateur dance classes. The pop world as a child was an imaginary one. Nothing seemed real. Colours were muted or super saturated. The lyrics were predictable but also mirrored scenarios in our lives. Love lost, happiness, melancholy. You could lose yourself in this world. All of this contradicts the tapestry and art world. To me, tapestry is serious, time consuming, and situated in a long history. But I want my tapestries to be like a pop song; fun, addictive and something that gets stuck in your head.” – Mardi Nowak
