Jane Theau

Thesis Working Title: From the Site of the Soul. Using horsehair to incite touch.

Supervisor: Dr Erica Seccombe

Topic: My research explores the possibilities of tactile interaction with art and the knowledge that can be gained from embodied experience.  Horsehair, a product of skin, is my principal material and I use its materiality and metaphoric potential to create art that incites touch, drawing upon techniques from my practice in large-scale lace making. Major influences are The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries whose subject is the senses, Michel Serres’s text The Five Senses  in which he conflates fabric with skin, and the cello, whose bow led me to horsehair. I have extended the reach of the little-used fibre of horsehair to create woven and fringed, netted and threaded textiles that have been juxtaposed with bronze sculptures and incorporated into dance performances that demonstrate the joy to be had from touch. April 2020.

Further interests: In the course of my research I discovered I had the capacity to stage a performance and create a short film, developing skills along the way as diverse as commissioning music, choreographing dance, arranging filming and lighting and editing the final footage. I also developed a unique tactile landscape by combining horsehair and wool in a tapestry, and discovered the beauty of the pairing of natural horsehair with bronze.

Upon graduation I look forward to continuing my focus on the marriage of performance, music and art, hopefully through a residency in Sweden in collaboration with a theatre company. I will also be
shifting the focus of my practice to trees. The natural environment is far more deserving of attention than the human one.