Culbert’s deconstructed fabric objects have been stripped down to their essential seams. In this exercise of recontextualising the everyday, items are reduced to their bare bones through a process of subtractive drawing that renders three-dimensional objects twodimensional.

Seams are the central motif in Pip Culbert’s artistic practice. Deconstructing clothes, bags, tents, and other textile based objects, gleaned by the artist over time, main structural lines of these forms remain. Objects are transformed into conceptual ‘ghosts’, the forms are reduced to archetypes. Just as a chair is not merely a chair for Joseph Kosuth, and a pipe is not just a pipe for René Magritte; these are not only skirts, pockets, bags, they are much more.

Like bold shadows or distinctive silhouettes, Culbert’s works appear as both painterly and sculptural forms. Seams hold different layers of fabric together with stitches, and Culbert follows their traces to create her “soft” sculptures. Culbert reverses the process of any tailor or machine; there is a modesty and economy of form—it is a process of relief. However, the subtle nuances of Culbert’s work extend much further. One can detect within these works the current political demands our world is facing; from war, political conflict, poverty and austerity; all of which will shape our future.