'Jolie Laide' a term used to describe something that is ugly and pretty at the same time, unconventionally attractive. My practice explores my relationship with Dublin, the city I grew up in, through research into urban landscapes and brutalist architecture. Using knit, a craft which has been passed down through generations of my family and is recognised as a symbol of femininity, I combine it with industrial materials considered to be masculine, such as rope and rubber, to generate contrast.
It is important to me to create that contrast between the hard materials used in architecture and the soft materials used in textiles, to find the beauty in something considered ugly. My work explores the contradiction between modern design and traditional Irish textiles, the dull and bright colours, and the angular and delicate textures. My final project is an architectural piece engineered for movement and constructed for the body.
