Textile, Horsehair

Horsehair, a material most commonly used for scratchy but durable 19th-century upholstery fabrics, is revitalized here in a simple structure that exploits the natural beauty of the material. The wide bands are formed by changes in density, which create translucent and opaque areas, and the unbound ends highlight the nature of the raw material.
Since 1997, the Salt has been experimenting with the ways in which materials and textures absorb, reflect, and filter light. Because the firm has focused on window treatments, it is concerned with privacy, with managing light, and with the appearance of different materials in day and evening lighting. Many of Salt’s textiles play with sheerness and opacity—areas to look at and to look through, surfaces that attract the eye, and others that allow light and vision to pass through. Horsehair, together with Kingfisher Floats and Longitude, will update a collection of casement and architectural textiles with similar concerns from such important designers as Anni Albers, Marianne Strengell, and Jack Lenor Larsen.

Textile, Horsehair; Designed by June Swindell (British, b. 1972); Manufactured by Salt.; England; horsehair, viscose; H x W: 200 x 80 cm (6 ft. 6 3/4 in. x 31 1/2 in.); Gift of June Swindell, Salt UK Ltd.; 2007-10-1

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Looking Forward/ Looking Back: Recent Acquisitions in 20th- and 21st-Century Design.