Sophie Rowley and the depth of a woven surface
Sophie Rowley’s yarn paintings caught my eye for the depth she gets out of such a restrained surface. The colour barely changes, but there is a great deal happening in the threads. Rounded forms seem to swell forwards, while the narrow spaces around them fall back into shadow.
Her Repetition works begin with cotton canvas. By removing threads, Rowley opens up the weave and changes the structure of the cloth itself. What might first look like a pattern drawn across a surface has a physical depth. The remaining fibres gather into lines and curves, and light picks out their small irregularities.
In Repetition 6.4, from 2023, the forms run across a broad rectangle in four rows. Seen straight on, the arrangement feels measured and quite still. The angled photograph makes the circular shapes more apparent; you can follow the threads around their edges and see how much the appearance depends on where you look from. The grid gives you something steady to return to as the surface shifts.
Repetition 15.10, also from 2023, takes this into a much denser field of small squares. The close view is particularly good: each square holds a slightly different tangle of lines, though the overall spacing remains consistent. In the smaller Repetition 3.3, from 2024, there is more room around the rounded forms, and their outlines are easier to follow.
I like how much these pieces offer within a limited palette. The differences in density, the loose ends and the shadows between fibres give the work its character. Looking at the whole piece and then its detail feels equally worthwhile.
