Marie-Therese Dawes

Marie Therese Dawes

About

Marie-Therese Dawes is a textile artist who shares her time between East London and Northumberland. 

I enjoy the contrast between the man-made and natural world, the echoes between them, and how they shape each other. I find huge inspiration walking in the Royal Docks, it is a revelation of nature and time, the industrial past, gleaming buildings, urban wildlife, and waterways.  Nature is rarely wrong in her eclectic colour palette, and there it is even more pronounced, refracted by the tower blocks. I return to this repeatedly in my work. 

Statement

Freedom’s Just Another Word

I started enclosing books because I love them both as objects and for their content. I love yarn and I needed something portable to do on train journeys. Will I cocoon an object I love, or soften the blow of something I do not?

My theme was arrived at after contemplation of the writings of Maggie Nelson and Olivia Laing on the subject of Freedom. What does freedom mean – are we in a world of post-freedom, just as the idea of post-truth is promoted today – a time where neither freedom nor truth can be achieved. Has Nina Simone’s 22nd Century arrived? 

I am participating in the gallery project to explore the intersection between my work and the viewer. I welcome you to bring your headphones and your phone, select a song from my playlist and use today’s newspapers as a canvas, to contemplate and contribute. We can discuss the day’s events, your idea of freedom, the book I am covering, or just Enjoy the Silence. 

Playlist

Process