"I situate my studio practice at the intersection of textile and architecture. If the nature of architecture is fixed and permanent then the opposite would be a textile, collapsible and movable. Further consideration would show more common links than differences. Both mediums define space, create shelter and allow privacy; a textile however, has the advantage of flexibility. It is a semi two-dimensional plane that has the ability to fold, drape, move and change to its surroundings.
My work uses cloth construction as a fundamental center, a place to start from and move back to. With a background in weaving, I see myself as a builder; drawing clear connections between the lines of thread laid perpendicularly through a warp and the construction of architectural spaces.
In recent works woven textiles and architecture are explored as they pertain to movement—movement described by and remembered through the outlining material landscape. The movement through a landscape, the pliability of a textile, as well as their gridded systems, are described and explored in relation to social structures of citizenship and intersecting parts of a whole. Ultimately, recognition of these systems as boundaries and edges describes the life within.
The work materializes through a variety of mediums all traced back to the line of a thread. I create handwoven textiles that I pair with architectural materials such as metal and concrete. I collaborate with visual artists and dancers to create installation work, performance and video. I am interested in understanding my studio practice as an object of labor in a constant state of becoming, something that is pliable and alive."
—Crystal Gregory