Marianne Fairbanks

Domestic Reflex

The work presented by Marianne Fairbanks in Domestic Reflex challenges our understanding of cloth – its material meaning and its roles as utilitarian form, as math-based logic system, and as conceptual art. Textiles form the basis of much of our interior spaces, from clothing, pillows, curtains, towels, upholstery, all things of comfort and utility. Fairbanks turns the lens to the patterns at the heart of these goods by taking the sophisticated interlacements of woven structures and enlarging their scale or translating materials into bold and colorful interpretations. Through handweaving, digital Jacquard loom weaving, collage, and sculpture, Fairbanks’s work explores how pattern systems can be exaggerated and inflated to expose the intelligence and intricacies otherwise overlooked. These interpretations of time spent inside, closely looking and focused on interior space, both architectural space and personal space, result in a joyful, boisterous, playful presentation that celebrates the soft, the sophisticated, and the slow.