The Mexican artist weaves miles of colourful thread into large scale installations.

 


Few artists are capable of transforming something as delicate as thread into mesmerizing large scale explosions of colour like Gabriel Dawe, a Mexican artist currently based in Texas. Through a careful and systematic construction method, Dawe weaves miles of colourful thread into site specific installations named PLEXUS. Gently handled, the threads become the representation of the woven and richly coloured textiles of his native Mexico.

His installations explore several aspects of society and culture in Mexico. In part, they analyse the relationship between fashion and architecture. For the artist, they both relate to the need for shelter in all shapes and form shared by society in general. But more importantly, the thread installations explore the textile world almost exclusively reserved for women.

His goal is to examine and symbolically represent the construction of gender and identity in Mexican culture and society. In this context, masculine identity is often complicated and complex, and inevitably linked to notions of machismo. The resulting notion of masculinity limits individual identity to a series of social stereotypes. Through his art Dawe seeks to subvert and challenge these established notions and the identities they determine.

The PLEXUS installations take over the space they were thought for, dominating the emptiness with their mesmerizing colours. The dream-like effects created by the thousands of threads seize the viewers as they contemplate the installations and the different views and shapes they offer.

The natural light of the space completes the experience, creating constant changes of colour and texture, from intense and almost solid to ethereal and transparent and all the shades in between.

 

All images ©Gabriel Dawe