“Playfulness is a serious matter”
Award-winning textile designer Tania Grace Knuckey created her first scarf collection in 2015 as a one-off – mainly with friends and family in mind, and now she can’t stop! Fantastical creatures, exciting graphic colour mixes, and nature-inspired motifs are the focal elements of her playful creative world of silky scarves that are as much heirloom pieces of art as they are wearable accessories, with a contemporary and truly uplifting spirit. Above: Dinosaurs: Dino – 2020 – silk twill, made in France – limited edition
In the most recent series of collections, dinosaurs, serpents, ‘soft’ beasts, dogs and lobsters are among the friendly-faced creatures portrayed against colourful asymmetrical abstract backgrounds with “naive” handwritten messages – all conceived through exciting colour mixes on the silk and a strong attention to detail and hand finishing.
About : Tania Grace Knuckey is a textile designer and multi-media artist living and working in Geneva, Switzerland. She graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2009 with a Cum Laude BA in Design and from The Royal College of Art London in 2012 with an MA in mixed media textiles. Her artistic practice is playful with an unapologetic bold use of colour, and yet behind this aesthetic, more often than not, is a level of seriousness borne out of steady research. She seeks to surprise at times, to titillate perhaps, but always to unsettle the norm, questioning conventional notions of form and function. In 2015 Tania launched her limited edition silk scarves; unique, vibrant and playful. The manner in which colour folds, falls, intermingles, and intertwine when worn is particularly important as she spends a great deal of care designing and combining each motif to ensure it is authentic. Inspired from nature, animals and fantastical creatures, Tania’s scarf are a reminder that playfulness is a serious matter, that mark- making possibilities are endless, colours have power and prints can take on a life of their own. Knuckey’s work is available at Paradigme in Geneva, the Cloister in Milan and from her website at https://taniagraceknuckey.com