Chaos reframed

The weaver Sytze Roos represents the currently increasing tendency among weavers to make use of computer-control in the making of functional textiles and unique piece goods as well as pictorial weaving in which traditional handicraft is combined with industrial production.

Sytze Roos was born in the Netherlands where he was trained as a weaver. Early on he was influenced by the Nordic tradition of weaving through his studies at the tradition-bound Sätergläntan School of Weaving in Sweden and at Kolding Design School. Sytze Roos, however, describes himself as a weaver on the move, since he is constantly seeking personal and technical challenges. Such challenges can be found, for instance, in a textile company that offers new technological possibilities, but they can also be found in the inspiration derived from collaborations with weaving colleagues.

When working with functional textiles, Sytze Roos develops his designs on the computer. These ideas are then tested on the computer-controlled hand-loom. The production is carried out on a computer-controlled power loom. The fabrics are woven from the finest and softest merino wool, and in the individual textile patterns vary with small graphic details. Yet, this industrial production can still be characterized as unique textiles, because Roos intervenes in the mechanical process. The loom is stopped, the design is slightly altered or a new fabric is added, and then the loom is started again. It could be described as a kind of continual product development.

The exhibition features functional weavings and decorative weavings as well as experiments.

UNIQUE TEXTILES

The basic elements of Sytze Roos’ unique pictorial textiles are the combination of traditional ties and the possibilities in computer-controlled production and the use of natural materials such as wool, cotton, flax and paper. Another important element is that, as a textile artist, Sytze Roos is preoccupied with the pattern as an image.
By cultivating the use of the colour and the materials as such he finds pattern-graphical challenges in a mix of chaos and tight control, guided by ideas that are completely his own. It is never a question of repetitions or a rapport in the classic sense. The design and expression of the individual textile is shaped on the loom as a “work in progress” in which the creative process is partly controlled by coincidences and partly by the weaver’s constant intervention in what could be called a dialogue between technology and handwork.
As far as the method is concerned, the sources of inspiration for the pictorial textiles are the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian and the Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich, but the Danish painter and provocateur artist Jens Jørgen Thorsen has also fascinated Sytze Roos.

Last updated 08.12.2010