The award-winning weaver, Diedrick Brackens discovered art when he was young but fell in love with tapestry ever since. Now the 33-year-old sensation is making waves in the art world – Here’s why.
“It’s little wonder we often talk of life’s rich tapestry to describe the vibrancy of life itself; tapestry is a unique medium that captures shape, form, colour and texture – suspending vivid images in fabric for all time,” says Signare. Award-winning Diedrick Brackens believes this to be true.
“I was in London a couple of weeks ago, and I got to go to the Victoria & Albert to see their tapestry room, and it just like, slayed me. To see the detail that someone can coax out of thread – it shocked me.” – Diedrick Brackens.
Brackens employs techniques from West African weaving, quilting from the American South and European tapestry-making to create both abstract and figurative works.
By using a floor harnessed loom where all of the threads are put through in a particular sequence. It is a material that has specific associations with comfort and healing – subjects that fall under Bracken’s main talking points.
According to his portfolio, he “begins his process through the hand-dying of cotton, a material he deliberately uses to acknowledge its brutal history.” From here, the visionary dyes his pigments with a choice of ink such as wine, tea or bleach to create his woven tapestries.
“I feel like I have been able to anchor these characters and flesh out these stories in the way that I see them. I use my memories, my childhood in the south and things that I have identified through the lenses of my identity as inspiration.” – Diedrick Brackens.