Plunging lines

“I always travelled purposefully to cities like New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo, to take photographs for my series there.

I find it very interesting to look at earlier work with new criteria; and to go specifically in search of motifs that could be suitable for weaving. I’m always surprised by the direction into which the motif has developed after weaving.

I’d like to illustrate the weaving process with an example from Hong Kong: I cut with a knife along the plunging lines of an ageing Hong Kong skyscraper, and cut the photo is vertical lines.

Then I take a second print of the identical motif and cut horizontally, along the lines of window and balcony parapets, as though I’m tracing the architecture of the building with all its projections, air-conditioning units, window grilles, etc.. Then I follow an old cultural technique and I weave the horizontal strips one after the other into the vertical ones.

Once a horizontal strip has been woven in, I press it against the previous horizontal row. Even so, there is a displacement of each strip in the lower direction, so that a wide strip is left over at the end of the second photograph. The further I weave, the more the horizontal strips move away from their vertical counterpart.”