Emily Cannell’s TILT affords viewers an opportunity to consider basic engagements with being inside and outside, of being covered and exposed. She offers us this literal encounter as we move through the spaces of her structural construction, leading us to reflect on architectural interventions and limits, on global concerns around migration and military action, on borders and boundaries.
Cannell’s use of fabric, rich with reference and supple in materiality, extends the definition of what an enclosure might be and compels us to consider thresholds. As we physically traverse through, around, and into TILT, our sense of place is skewed ever so slightly, mirroring the italicized font used to name the work. We are atilt.
TILT reminds us of the reality of our constructed world as the physical manifestation of systems that bestow access and limitation. Our ability to move into and out of these ‘covers’ becomes a powerful metaphor for our fabricated environs.
Dr Susan Barnet, Oct 2023.
TILT, 2023, was a large-scale textile and mixed media installation which repurposed an ex-military parachute into a monumental, immersive shelter, filling the historic Old Theatre in Framlingham, supported by The Art Station.
Building on my solo show On the Brink at OUTPOST gallery, the work challenged the notion of textiles as being small in scale, or handmade, by presenting an expansive environment which could be entered into and explored; resembling a mountainous landscape, a huge tent, or a settlement of roughly assembled shelters.
The parachute itself was sourced from eBay, is around 75 ft wide, weighs approx 45 kilograms and was originally used for dropping heavy cargo into war zones. Ladders and chairs found in the Old Theatre were used to hoist the fabric into peaks, also wooden posts and sandbags to hold things in position. The architectural beams of the theater itself, previously used for props and curtains, lent themselves to hanging and draping the work.
Detritus including car bumpers and busted bonnets were suspended from the ceiling creating a topsy-turvy, post apocalyptic environment - some were draped in metallic fabrics like Greek sculptures of a dystopian future. Other works included a kaleidoscopic moving image piece of metallic jersey projected on to the wall.
TILT offered an environment to be experienced, encouraging audiences to reflect on their relationship with the parachute as a material borne of conflict, and the architectures we create in order to feel safe, to play, or to shelter.
R&D supported by University of Suffolk, with thanks to Clare Palmier and The Art Station.