April 1 2024
from out of the blue studio gallery is delighted to be able to introduce Isla Fabu to the upcoming travellers who will be workshopping at the studio gallery. These visitors have chosen to learn about New Zealand through the lens of fibre experiences under the guidance of Rowan Tree Travel. We are excitedly preparing to host each group over two days where they will be led in distinctively Kiwi fibre workshops and experiences. Isla is one of the three workshop leaders who will inspire a love of our land and our fibre arts deep within these voyagers.
Here is a curent update of Isla’s Artistic Statement.
Raised by the Baltic Sea and adopted by the Southern Ocean, I feel deeply at home in the natural world.
Elements from the land are my medium, especially muka – the inner fibre of harakeke. Growing, gathering and processing these living things with attention, respect and love is at the heart of my practice. These time-receiving processes allow me to be fully present for what is unfolding. It’s a homecoming to the world through my senses, a moment-by- moment awakening from the dream of separation. It’s the art of listening to the land.
The resulting experimental artworks are informed by an ongoing exploration of the space beyond dualistic perception. Their intricate and gentle nature conveys a sense of stillness. An invitation to pause and be in touch with the field where we are one with all that is.
Isla was born on Rügen – an island in the Baltic Sea – and raised in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) – a socialist country which no longer exists.
She studied Interior Design and Communication Design in Germany, and lived and worked in Berlin, Italy, Ireland and Aotearoa New Zealand.
In 2011 she learnt spinning in Ireland, which took her artwork in a new direction towards natural fibre creations. Since 2012 she has made Aotearoa New Zealand her home. Here she finds a wealth of inspiration, incorporating native plants and natural elements into her work. Having lived in the awe-inspiring presence of Taranaki Maunga (Mount Taranaki), she now continues her journey in Te Tai Tokerau / The Far North.
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March 2022
Currently from Kerikeri in The Far North, Isla approaches her art practice with a very empathetic mindset. Here she talks about her materials, her making, her thoughts and her feelings:
I am an artist living in Aotearoa New Zealand. Raised by the Baltic Sea and adopted by the Southern Ocean, I feel deeply at home in the natural world.
Currently I co-create with muka, the inner fibre of harakeke. My intuitive process starts with individual plants I regard as personalities. https://www.islafabu.com/blog/forest-in-a-tear-drop
Each of my artworks is rooted in the natural world. Natural fibres and colours from the land are my medium. Growing, gathering and processing these living things with attention, respect and love are at the heart of my practice.
In an online post Isla describes the time she spends communing with her elements as: Treasured time for listening to fibres and colours from the land. I can only hear them when I’m quiet.
A union has occurred between Isla and her spinning equipment – either her spinning wheel Aura or her Turkish spindle.
These devices allow a release within Isla that sets free her passion for the twirling act of hand spinning. When I spin I feel connected to something bigger than me. I’m in the flow – free to play with ideas and techniques. The resulting innovative yarns are the building blocks of my multilayered fibre pieces.
It is important to me to take time for my explorations. Time to engage with every moment – to observe, feel, listen… to come home to the world via my senses. Time to feel the connection with Papatūānuku / Mother Earth and all beings coming from her. Time to practice reciprocity, connection and oneness.
I like to call this slow process time-receiving versus time-consuming.
It is a journey into magical realms and the unknown. It’s the reason why I feel driven to create art.
My current work emerges from an intimate dialogue with muka*. I’m particularly interested in Māori and Polynesian wisdom, the similarities between indigenous practices all over the world and how they relate to my own Baltic Sea heritage.
This is an ongoing exploration of connection to place, the nature of interbeing*, and where we belong beyond human society.https://www.islafabu.com/blog/interbeing
* muka is the inner fibre of harakeke. Harakeke is also known as Phormium tenax or New Zealand Flax.
* interbeing is a word coined by Thich Nhat Hanh, meaning nothing can exist without everything else in the cosmos.
Solo Exhibition – Beauty and the Beast. 3rd March – 11th April 2022.
A selection of works exploring the space beyond dualistic perceptions
There is immediately a sense of time slowing on entering the space where this exhibition is installed. It is as if we are being asked by the works of Isla to grant them some detailed amount of our time in an awareness and respect for the time held in the transformation processes that led to their creation.
While the creating has been time rich, the thoughts inspiring the processes have an intuitive timeliness for our world. Below is Isla’s Artist statement on this exhibition, a collection of her works from the recent past that explore our human inclination to categorise and “box” perceptions.
Growing up in Eastern Germany behind the Iron Curtain, I believed in a scary beast on the other side of the wall. The wall came down but the beast turned out to be different than I thought. It lives in-side of each of us, constantly dividing into self and other, good and bad, having and not having and so on.
Each piece in this exhibition reflects on my journey into the space beyond these dualistic perceptions. A journey guided by natural fibres and colours from the land, and indigenous wisdom.
While living in the presence of Taranaki Maunga, muka, the fibre of harakeke / New Zealand Flax, became my main inspiration, spiritual guidance and beloved teacher, almost every piece in this exhibition is a co-creation with muka from this land. Working with this Beauty means extensive, time-receiving processes where I can be fully present for what is unfolding. It’s a homecoming to the world via my senses, a moment-by-moment-awakening from the dream of separation.
In these difficult times of change we live in, fear easily feeds the separating mind, which only causes more suffering. I hope this exhibition provides some inspiration for connecting back to the quiet space where we are ONE.
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” Rumi
The alternative title for this exhibition could well have been On Interbeing. However the background story about this naming is carefully crafted on Isla’s blogpost: https://www.islafabu.com/blog/beauty-and-the-beast-a-conceptional-yarn.
It is a wonderful thing to host these works in the presence of our Taranaki Maunga on the edge of the mighty Tasman Ocean.
Here is Isla’s background statement about her work in Dreaming of the Future – NZ Regional Group of SDA Exhibition 2021:
Forest in A Tear Drop
Sometimes I dream about a future where there is no struggle, no fear, no pain. But that world would also be without unfolding, no moon in the night sky and no decaying matter to nurture a tree.
Rather than dreaming I want to flow with it all, in the here and now. I want to stay awake for the abundance of each moment.
Isn‘t it this present moment where future lies? Where humans wake up from the dream of separation. Where there is only one time: pastpresentfuture.
Sometimes I dream.
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