the country i come from XXXI

London-based artist Ethan Caflisch has established a certain level of comfort in continuing his well known textile series. However, with that comfort of knowing what mistakes to avoid, comes the urge to expand - to start a new piece and intentionally creating chaos in order to fix it. To find it's subtle and carefully thought-out alchemy. No matter how comfortable   ...(more)

London-based artist Ethan Caflisch has established a certain level of comfort in continuing his well known textile series. However, with that comfort of knowing what mistakes to avoid, comes the urge to expand - to start a new piece and intentionally creating chaos in order to fix it. To find it's subtle and carefully thought-out alchemy. No matter how comfortable you are with a process, a composition or a skill, the discovery of something new is always the most fulfilling.

The series can be described in the artists own words: ‘a revisitation to a place i know and have shaped but isn’t how i left it. the punctures from top to bottom bond and hide. the initial carelessness from sprinting is what now requires surgery. there is still a view through the glass, or maybe it’s open, who knows anymore. the horizontal rarely changes at a distance, it’s the vertical that disrupts; although the force applied to ‘make it work’ messes with that line a bit.
the things that keep me going now are the importance of the material, and saving it, preserving it, presenting it’

the country i come from uses various types of fabric to create flattened, minimalist landscapes, inspired by Caflisch’s upbringing in the midwest. The sewn seam between the bold colors creates a horizon line, simplifying the viewer’s perspective into distinct planes. The works also explore color theory and abstraction, inviting the viewer to fill in the blanks about the vista upon which they gaze.