Artist: Joanna Wilde
Title: Burnt out – the shape of smoke
Attribution: Burnt out - the shape of smoke, Joanna Wilde, 2021
Year: 2021
Materials: raw silk, silk organza and cotton, silk and metallic yarns
Dimensions: 64x30cm
Image Statement: This piece is made out of a burnt silk prayer shawl - my yoga prayer shawl was accidentally burnt during practice 50 years after the day when I was trapped in a fire in my childhood home - both parents were out. This work explores the shape of the damage wrought by fire in organic material. The six significantly burnt pieces were cut out of the larger shawl, filled in with black translucent silk organza and detailed with silk and metallic threads worked in boro stitch (reclaiming the old and threadbare) to pay soft attention to the details of the harm. The 6 patches are loosely attached with fraying an explicit part of the design.