Featuring: Elizabeth Delfs

Part of my formative years as an architecture student was spent fiddling with fabric while making references to fashion to solve issues of space and structure: a process which I truly enjoyed. Hence I was really excited to come across Elizabeth Delfs – a Perth, Australia-based visual artist whose soft sculptures function as fashion with reference to architecture. Her shape-shifting pieces are abound with tectonic qualities, and are crafted with human interaction in mind, forming dynamic shapes when in motion.

Working with materials such as foam, fly wire and plastics applied with repetitive cutting, smocking and printing, Elizabeth Delfs constructed billowing forms that switched between the interior and exterior, structure and surface. When worn, her garments challenged the wearer on the notions of commercial beauty – on what it means to dress up in unconventional forms, and whether the garments are indeed ‘architecture’.

On a recent June day, Elizabeth Delfs took time in answering a few questions, and shared some thoughts on her inspirations and aspirations as an artist with an interest in interdisciplinary works and collaborations. Huge thanks to Elizabeth who graciously provided the images of her wonderful pieces!

P|F: Could you tell us about your background, and what interest you about working with textiles?
Elizabeth Delfs (ED): I completed my degree in Fashion and Textile Design at Curtin University of Technology. I have worked between fashion, theatre, design, visual arts etc. I am not so much interested in textiles as I am in material culture; being the language of material and how this evolves and is appropriated through process and concepts, and how these outcomes and processes are reflective of individual and collective ideas to do with past, current and hypnotized histories and artifacts. This is what I am interested in; how these disciplines interweave and speak about cultures from an anthropological perspective, acting as sign posts for the time we live in and provoke alternative thinking. Textiles and fashion is of course a very rich terrain to reference, because cloth and garment are so intimately entwined with all aspects if human existence, be it in Western society or hunter-gather tribes.

P|F: What are your sources of inspiration, if any?
ED: I am interested and influenced by a lot of different art, design, fashion and music. I especially love Japanese fashion designers Issey Miyake, Junya Watanabe, Rei Kawakubo. I am also interested in architects Frank Gehry, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, as well as visual artists such Maria Blaisse, Mary Temple, John Powers, Olafur Eliasson, Anish Kapoor, Dale Chihuly, Louise Paramor, Matthew Barney, Hiraki Sawa, Ruth Asawa.

P|F: Do you have any current/upcoming projects you are working on?
ED: I just finished working on a collaboration with architect David Barr, creating a set piece for a contemporary dance production for Steps Dance company (view the images below). Barr based a piece of the set on a work of mine and we produced it together which was a great experience. We worked using sheets of powder coated aluminum which we spray painted and applied a folding process. We produced around 50 pieces and arranged them suspended in a fashion that resembled a nest for the Phoenix from which the colour palette was also derived. I am also working CODA Architects on a public art project for a new building in Northbridge, (which is the night life district of Perth, Western Australia), and making new work.

P|F: If you have an artist or person in mind that you would like to collaborate with in the near future, who would it be and why?
ED: I would love to collaborate with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, they have done some amazing projects that are very innovative and move comfortably between a variety of disciplines, and produce projects that are conceptually and materially provocative.

P|F: Elizabeth, I’m definitely excited to see what you’ll come up next! Wishing you all the best in your future projects!

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