What is Deborah Crowe’s “One Idea” made up from and how does it keep recurring in various ways?

Deborah Crowe was originally from Dundee, Scotland. She immegrated to New Zealand over twenty years ago. This is visible in some of her works.

What ever this 'one idea' of Deborah's is she uses bridges, weaving, space, interdisciplinary, containment, construction, architecture, recyling works and textures as reccuring themes in her work.
I think one main Idea she has explored is exploring space, and the way we perceive space.

One of the works she did 'Beneath the surface', Deborah looked into the "contained body" (as she states), the idea of how women 'contain' their bodies , and in a way torture themselves. She also looked into 'torture' as a part of her work - putting people in the room with objects - creating space in their mind and imaginations.




'Beneath the surface', 1997.




Adina…This was another work where Deborah looks at women 'containing themselves'. The Idea of how we percieve space shows in the way she has used a material that we can see through, but also looks very painful to wear. Creating a space in which the viewer can feel 'torture'.

Another important aspect Deborah uses to portray ideas is her planning and drafting process. At the show she did in Te Tuhi (below), the 'edges and Ideas in how we plan and draft things' became the actual drawing process.




Contilever, 2006,




Dunedin public art gallery, how it intercepts with a building, responding to natural space. Art gallery in octagon.,




shift 2000:This is interesting because it shows how fabric can express weight, the reminiscence of people. The contrast between the light airy object and an object tht actually has weight. It is interesting also this work that Deborah didn't realise until later on what it was that influenced her in the making of this work, she states it was her mothers death. She also talked about how the shadow can be a symbolic element, the shadow can re represent ourselves, and act as a medium that moves between two-dimensional and three-dimensional.




One artist Deborah was influenced by was Caroline Broadhead a british maker trained in jewellery, she also made work in textile- she shifts betweeen disciplines. This work created a space in which the body was contained by a neck veil.






Collared – In 1999 Deborah suddenly became a jeweller, although she didn’t think of herself as a jeweller, instead she preferred to think of it as 'work of the body'.

At Fingers shot (gallery but sometimes like a shop) she had done all research on corsets, she found out when men used to wear them It used to cut their necks - (hahah) implied the torture in her work. She worked out of nylon and copper wire, emulating fabrics - but made them into harder surfaces… fine stainless steel gauze (from inside the tap) - a cool way of exploring materials and their potential…




IN her colab with Kim Fraser, at supreme smokefree fashion awards in 1997 they designed a garment 'for the future' (to be 2004)...She said the inspiration was 'On making a safe space for yourself… to hide away from technology… a visor on the front, related to architectural structure'… Using copper to conduct energy - creating space to escape from technology. Looked like it was closing the body in, but the model stated it was infact quite easy to move about in.

they started afashion label called 'FRASER CROWE', lots of inspiration came from the corset, and reflective tape to look like a line drawing in space…

She is also interested in how things fit together, weaving and how tiny little differences can 'make a difference'. SHe has done a lot of resource gathering at britomart, looking into construction vs. fabric - cloth and buildings how they are both constructed in a similar fashion. She said she was interested in people looking at it and thinking what might actually be behind the wall…she would take tiny details and blow them up, in one instance Deborah made work 3m tall from tiny piece in other works.




Catalogue mark Kirby, one type of work seems to mimik something else,





Warp: is also term for vertical threads in woven fabric…to make this work she used fishing line that was dyed. Her palette became what she hand dyed, looked like modernist paintings, it wasn’t deliberate.




Another artist that really influenced her work was BRIDGET RILEY…(shown is Chant 1967)… amazing about how colour works together.. No painter has ever made us more aware of our eyes than Bridget riley… became like this, with study of colours, when putting together the threads..


Her 'one idea' came uo also in the work she made for Hokianga art gallery. It was a 'Little bit like a labyrinth or maze, creating space of what u might be contained in', Deborah claims… Exposing people to 'what was real and what wasn't real'.
This was perhaps along the line of her 'one idea'. Playing on what was 'real and what wasn't real'. Through this using all the above manipulations to do so.

Other aspects/artists that have influenced Deborah Crowe include:


The Bridge - one of her favourite structures…

Janet Laurence and her work at the Sydney biennale aug 20 - 'qualities in her work that are so 'brilliantly, architectural yet expressive'.

The film Inception (2010) - influenced her in visiting Dubai 2010, making images and turning them on their sides.

Paul Pfeiffer - the saints, 2010,

Luc Besson.,

film “In the Loop”…. she was influenced in this when making work made of fabric to contradict what is sewn on it (Oxymorons, something that has a contradiction).

Nahem tevet, seven walks Dundee, www.tevet.com

Claire Barclay, a Scottish artist, she sculptured objects, Crowe states "there is an oddness in her work that I really wanted to have in my work but didn’t manage".


SO, the one idea... playing on what was real and what wasn't real. Using many different ways to do so.
Ciao :)