Artist Presentation - Sarah Taylor

Sarah Taylor came to talk about the work she does and what inspired her. She began her presentation with a quote that inspires her,  "Designers usually design,  not just because they enjoy doing it but because they tend to be fascinated by the things they create" (lawson 1965).  Sarah always imagined her becoming a Potter, until she went to school at Winsor Scto hool of Art and started learning about textiles. She soon gained an interest in creating textiles that had form, shape and that was 3 dimensional. Following that, she began her post graduate at Heriot Watt University, this was so she could explore her interest with cloth design and yarn. It was at that point,  Sarah found an interest in light and reflective qualities. At an exhibition,  Sarah was fascinated by the use of optical fibres, which gave her the idea of using optical fibres within clothing. She also discovered that the fibres had healing qualities so she also experimented with UV light and baby blankets. Sarah was kind enough to show us some images of fabrics made with lights. Picasso's drawing with light image was a very inspirational piece of work which encouraged Sarah to expand her ideas through her work. She began to experiment by weaving with hand looms so that she could create a fabric with light that could be manipulated, to give the impression of movement through the use of light.
After this, Sarah had the opportunity to work with many designers to develop her work. Helen Story,  ( a well-known fashion designer between 1980-90, worked with her on a project named, "The first 1000 hours of life". This was the perfect opportunity to combine their talents to come up a dress inspired by the "primitive streak".
Another project Sarah took part in was to present a piece of work which represents femininity and the female form. The use of interactive light was used, which was a completely different way of working for Sarah. There was a sculpture of a woman laying down,  covered in a fur coat, (goat fur) with the lighting entwined within the fur coat. The theme was, "first last everything" which used  touch sensitive lighting to light up when touched. A similar idea was used at another exhibition entitled,  "coming to our senses"  which used a mixture of sound effects and different coloured lighting to alert the senses,  this was particularly good for people who were blind or for people with sensory disorders such as autism.
During an exhibition in Germany, Sarah presented an Art piece which focused on the sensory idea combined with balance and rhythm. She also looked at the use of light against shadows.
Aswell as the various types of art Sarah created with the use of optical fibres,  she also learned how to use a lazer cutting machine to make panel lighting. This then led her to create another work of art which is still at Aberdeen art Gallery,  it consisted off a single fabric pattern,  using individual rolled up pieces of fabric, and optical fibres.  Sarah still continues to work with optical fibres and takes part in exhibitions.
I was very inspired by Sarah's talk, as I too have a passion for working with coloured lighting.  Whether it is optical fibres or led lights I thoroughly enjoyed using them within my work aswell as my day-to-day. That's why it was nice to see someone expand on that idea and produce some gorgeous work.