An Exhibition of drawing and weaving by Sue Hiley Harris
The Table Gallery, Hay-on-Wye, GB
07.09. — 28.09.2024

Since the success of her last exhibition at The Table in 2021, Sue Hiley Harris has held a major show at Ruthin Craft Centre in north Wales, Weaving Unearthed, the partial environmental theme of which explored organic roots and the carbon-richness of peat. For the new Hay show the abstract sculptor weaver returns to more purely geometric concerns while developing further visual motifs related to the process of weaving. These may be understood in relation to constructed abstract art, whether two or three dimensional, in which material, structure and form are interdependent. 

Sue's latest work is predominantly informed by the golden ratio. The warp and weft of weaving, too, are inherently geometric or grid-like. The natural proportions of the golden ratio are obtained when a balance is achieved between a rectangle in which a square is drawn inside, to one side, and a remaining rectangle which is equivalent in proportion to that of the original rectangle.

While retaining an over-riding golden ratio structure, loose indigo-tipped paper-yarn, as in previous work, emerges from areas of textured background in a variety of muted earth pastels and pigments. In other areas loops of paper yarn turn inwards. In yet others, delicate parallel black-ink lines are drawn with a stick. Her recent brooches, fashioned from oxidised-silver-wire, similarly reveal the golden ratio in the differentiation of areas. The Fibonacci sequence, in which each link is the sum of preceding forms, is, in addition, a feature of her silver necklaces.

Sue Hiley Harris originally pursued fine art at Queensland College of Art in her home town of Brisbane, Australia. Since moving to Britain she studied hand-loom weaving in Bradford and science with the Open University. She has exhibited both internationally and in the United Kingdom and has work in public collections in Wales, England, France and Italy. Sue is a member of both the Welsh Group and 56 Group Wales as well as being a trustee of the Theo Moorman Trust which supports hand-loom weavers.

More about the artist at suehileyharris.co.uk and the exhibition at thetablehay.com