Although I consider my work to be within a painting dialogue, I use mostly textile techniques such as spinning, weaving and dyeing. I see these practices as allowing material variation, as well as touch (my own, a place’s, a process’s) to be recorded into material form. For me, this is a way to deal with the question of how we as bodies of matter can locate ourselves within a world that is also matter.
I work with wool, silk, metal, and dye because I’m interested in the fluidity (live-ness) of these materials. For example, the wool that I use is from the New Mexican Churro sheep, and the color of the fleece can change depending on something as subtle as the distance from one valley to another. I spin the wool I use by hand because it allows for the variation of line to be determined by the energy of my body. The wool is then woven, washed, and compressed to create surfaces of wavering density.
…For the stretched pieces, I wanted to find a way that my fragments could exist as stand-alone objects. I see the relationship between the stretched and the unstretched works as similar to how I understand variations between stillness and motion, silence and sound. Separate entities, but capable of forming a rhythm (relationship) when placed in a shared space. – Martha Tuttle
Tuttle was born in Santa Fe to poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge and artist Richard Tuttle. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn. She has exhibited her work across the US and Europe.