-production_digital.jpg)
Mark Corfield-Moore’s new exhibition is a highlight of the London Gallery Weekend. Above: The artist in front of his piece New Chapter (Conservatory), 2024.
Joshua Monaghan
There is a series of captivating dualities apparent in Mark Corfield-Moore’s ‘paintings that use textile techniques’. The evident planning behind each piece is subverted by a seemingly impulsive joy and, as well as marrying processes and image and text, they reflect a melding of cultures. Some will recognise in the feathery outlines the traditional technique of ikat weaving, to which the British-Thai artist gives a contemporary edge. A new body of work to be exhibited at Kate MacGarry, E2, explores, as Mark explains, ‘what it is to have a home – to belong – and what it is to be transient and step into the unknown’.
Our conversation is taking place in his studio outside the East Sussex town of Hastings, where he’s lived for the past five years. Born in Bangkok, but raised in England, he developed an interest in textiles during the final year of his MA at the Royal Academy Schools, when he ‘wanted to find
a way to embed the painted image in the canvas’. He began experimenting with a loom and his mother mentioned that his late grandmother had been a weaver in their village in northern Thailand. She suggested that he visit, stay with his cousins and learn the craft from the artisans who still weave there. ‘That was the moment everything fell into place,’ says Mark, adding that he has gone back several times.
Mark weaving a panel of a triptych featuring two elephants.
Joshua Monaghan