Jane Fairhurst

Jane Fairhurst makes sculptures and paintings that are the result of a deep investigation into the role of women in our human story and their long connection with the production of cloth.

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Spinning and weaving have been a constant in women’s story globally as has the use of clothing for protection often with the enhancement of amulet devices added to protect the wearer and avert the ‘evil eye’. In using these objects Fairhurst adds agency to her sculptural work and follows an ancient tradition of protection in an uncertain world.

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Fairhurst’s paintings connect to her textiles with an undeniable sculptural resonance and shown together with her textiles sculptures as installation they inform the viewer of the paintings origins.

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Through her work Jane connects not only to the women of our ancient past but also to the female artists that came before her and whose work has been a source of inspiration; Louise Bourgeois, Dorothea Tanning, Gita Bratescu, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Phyllida Barlow.

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Hestia & Persephone

Oil on Limewood board

Jane’s Protective Amulet series are painted in oil paint over black gesso’d Limewood boards. Negotiating the placing of paint, marks and patterns within shapes she creates solid looking forms on the flat picture surface.

Each is named after a goddess from Ancient Greek mythology.

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Ishtar’s Pillow of Dreams & Shapeshifter

Acrylic and oil on canvas

“I enjoy the process of painting and particularly the challenge of painting an object in front of me, observing the way the light falls, in this case, on the various fabrics and attached buttons, beads, nazaars and embroidery

The abstract nature of the subject matter also appeals, as does painting something that is also of my own creation.”

 

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The Distaff Side

Textile sculptures on metal stands

Jane made a series of small textiles and commissioned metal stands, from a local blacksmith. They are based on the shape of a distaff, the three-pronged stick women used to hold the fleece whilst spinning thread. The term Distaff Side describes a woman’s side of the family and is still a term used in legal documentation.

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Instagram: @jane_fairhurst_art