UK

Janis Jefferies is an artist, writer and curator, Professor of Visual Arts. She trained as a painter (Sheffield School of Art, Maidstone College of Art and Camberwell College of Arts and Crafts) and in woven construction (Poznan Academy of Fine Arts, Poland) under Magdalena Abakanowicz. On return to the UK in 1978 she pioneered the field of contemporary textiles within visual and material culture and has exhibited and published widely. Her areas of expertise lie at the intersection of arts and technology (textiles, performance, sound, publishing). 

She exhibits and curates internationally, and has delivered keynotes at many international conferences and professional seminars. She has edited books and several chapter contributions on textiles, technology, performance. She was a Creative Thinking Fellow, University of Auckland (which examined the role of creativity in the arts and humanities) and is devising research projects on critical cultures/contemporary practices with University of Queensland, and the Asia Archive with Hong Kong University.

Exhibitions

2013 ‘Intersensorial  Threads’, International exhibition of textiles and technology, University of Wollongong, Australia

2013 ‘The Difference Loom’, Iziko South Africa National Gallery

A series of digitally produced images mediating textile labour.

How do we generate intensity in a world swamped with images, with second- and third-hand imagery, in a world that has itself become a simulacrum? 

In places all over the world, many textile workers work in factories as well live in areas around as in derelict garment plants. Janis Jefferies’ series of digital images focuses on the fully operational textile plants in and around Hangzhou.

The title of the 2nd Triennial is called Weaving and We, we, as viewers, must not forget

or be immune to many textile workers whose daily lives are embroiled and embedded in a swathe of cloth, material, dye and weave production that can only be mediated in a world swamped with images. The images are a partial glimpse into the world behind the machinery, revealing scenes of the process of their labour.