Threads of inspiration: Fabric portraits of female artists - Agnes Varda

Have you heard of Agnes Varda? Another artist with a strong visual aesthetic.

I was first introduced to Agnes Varda’s work whilst on my Masters degree at the University of Brighton, whilst studying Inclusive Arts practice. Part of the Masters included a module called ‘participatory practice for social change’. This module underpinned the whole degree for me, it truly was inspiration, due to the excellent tutoring of Dr Julia Winckler.  

Agnes Varda was a Belgian born French film director, screenwriter and photographer and I was fascinated with the way she made films. Her work seemed so accessible and low budget but the result was powerful and strong.  I think it was her documentary style mixed with real life that I particularly liked about her film work.  ‘The gleaners’ looked at people who scavenge, people, especially women who take from the surplus in the fields, from trash cans. Varda looked at women who work in the fields harvesting crops, bent double and carrying heavy loads.  She talked about domesticity and role of women in society, and how in women’s roles as care givers and the act of bending down and picking up things for others. Agnes Varda influenced my final work on the Masters degree when i made ‘come and dance with me’, where I invited four performers to come and dance with me.

Agnes Varda was seen as the mother and grandmother of the French new wave in film.

Before Varda died she collaborated with a young photographer called JR making a film called, ‘Faces, Places’ where the unlikely duo tour around rural France.

This is what Wikipedia says about him. JR is the pseudonym of a French photographer and street artist. JR stands for the initials of JR's first name, which is Jean-René. Describing himself as a photograffeur, he flyposts large black-and-white photographic images in public locations. He states that the street is "the largest art gallery in the world”.