Kendall Clarke is an artist working in woven and constructed textiles, often using her own handmade materials spun from paper.

Her interest in language and writing led to a love of paper in the form of ancient calligraphic scrolls, and artefacts of fragmented scripts and text. The precariousness of these remnants, and the impossibility of decoding them, fascinates her. Her multi-layered textile works, which combine hand weaving, painting and erasure, allude to these concepts of precarity and survival. Their apertures and absences also interact with light to create dynamic shadows.

Kendall’s practice is driven by the exploration of materials and she often uses the making process to subvert their inherent properties, creating stiff, papery surfaces from soft cotton, or translucent constructions from metallic yarns. Paper is her focus because of both its versatility as a material, and its rich associations with visual and written culture.

In the last year she has won a prestigious QEST scholarship, sponsored by Sanderson Design Company, and an award from The Theo Moorman Trust for Weavers. Thanks to her QEST scholarship she was able to work with expert paper spinner and shifu weaver Hiroko Karuno over an extended period in her Kyoto home and studio. The subsequent award from the Theo Moorman Trust has funded research into how to extend the possible uses of her unique materials.