Deborah Forkert - Remains of the Day

For five years Deborah Forkert has worked with the dried paper covers of used tea bags, experimenting with and developing a variety of textures, connection methods, spatial patterns and linear joins. In conversation with her, Forkert's enthusiasm for the materiality of the covers shows as she waxes lyrical about the brands, colours and texture tendencies. She describes each patterned cover as 'a moment captured in time with a memory imprinted on it', each a unique individual, which forms a collective as beautiful as a stained glass window. 

  

She notes the 'threads' of continuity of rituals and traditions of society's past, present, and future, and extends the use of her medium into that of a metaphorical fabric - a narrative of sorts. Using memories of her childhood for inspiration, she also sees the fabric’s similarity to tapa cloth, and has appropriated and extended this humble, yet ethereal material to make frequent reference to many of her Pacific and New Zealand roots.

'Memories of My Mother's Piupiu: Dawn'.  recycled teabags, mixed media on plywood

 

 

 Forkert's solo exhibition 'Remains of the Day' opens at the Cottleston Gallery at 6pm on the 4th January 2017.