From listening to Crowe's story about being locked in a cupboard by her sister, and actually liking the feeling of being contained, I can see through her pieces of work that Crowe is obviously influenced by her surroundings and her experience of space.
One interesting example of this is her fascination with the
I found these surroundings and events that influenced her really interesting, and it makes me think about what has, and does influence me in my own work.
Crowe's wide range of interdisciplinary works have quite a few recurring themes throughout them. Some of these themes are about the containment of the body, perceptions and experiences, real or implied space, control, documentation, imagined spaces and construction (textile, woven, architectural) to name a few. In particular it is evident that Crowe is interested in the use of repetition and gridding in her works.
One artist that Crowe mentioned was Caroline Broadhead. Broadhead is an artist that also shifts between disciplines, like Crowe, and is highly versatile in her works. She was trained as jeweller, but developed her practice beyond this discipline to work on a larger scale, with textiles, light and space.
"I don’t consider myself to have one title. My practice spans several of the categories that are defined by organisations. I have been called a jeweller, a textile artist, a designer." - Caroline Broadhead(http://www.themaking.org.uk/)
I found some of Broadheads' pieces quite similar to Crowe's body works in that they both portray a type of containment of the body.
This is what I was particularly interested in, in Crowe's fashion works. I personally really enjoy fashion and was really fascinated by the messages of containment that were behind some of Crowe's works.
I especially liked the ideas behind the starch collars and corset. I think the message about torture and containment, and how formality can make you uncomfortable was portrayed very cleverly in these pieces by use of material.
Even though fashion seems completely opposite to her construction and architectural works it all made sense to me when Crowe said, "Just as fabric contains the body, so does architecture, just on a different scale..." This shows the relationship that between fabric and architecture. The interwoven qualities are the same with fabric as with building construction.
Another fashion piece that I enjoyed was her collaborative work with Kim Fraser. This piece is from woven nylon and copper wire and polyester. This garment was entered in the Avant-Garde section, where the brief was to design something for the future. Fraser and Crowe created a garment that was made to protect the wearer and also create a safe space from which to observe the quickening changer of the future.
Overall, I think the 'One idea', or basic gist of Crowe's work is an investigation into how we interpret space and containment. We can see this throughout her works and while some of her works are designed to contain the body, others are about intervening with and controlling space.
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Cheers Bonnie, good research and insightful comments.
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