Nov 7, 2024
Val Castellet: Weaving with Nature
- By
Blaire Dessent
Val Castellet: Weaving with Nature
Nov 7, 2024
by
Blaire Dessent
Val Castellet: Weaving with Nature
Nov 7, 2024
by
Blaire Dessent
Val Castellet: Weaving with Nature
Nov 7, 2024
- By
Blaire Dessent
Val Castellet: Weaving with Nature
Nov 7, 2024
- By
Blaire Dessent
sustainability
Val Castellet: Weaving with Nature
Nov 7, 2024
- By
Blaire Dessent
F

rom an early age, when living in Argentina, Val Castellet enjoyed making ceramics and sculpture and playing with form and shape. While she decided to pursue a career in biology and psychology, she was always making art, mostly doing printmaking, painting and embroidery. “I was always interested in playing with limits,” she says as she describes a series she began making using embroidery techniques on Japanese cotton paper. “I enjoy merging techniques and textures and materials.”

 

In the early 2000s, she moved to Spain, settling in Mallorca around 13 years ago, and it was at this time, living and working surrounded by nature, that she decided to start working with fibre in her art. “I returned to this interest in volume and form of my childhood, but doing it through weaving and basketry,” she says. She made a series of sisal baskets at a time when no one was pursuing work with natural fibres and materials; It was seen as very rustic, but she knew that this was the way forward. “I have a very strong consciousness and approach of giving materials a second life and I knew I wanted to keep going in this direction.” Whether recycled Mallorca wool bound together by strings, lights made with old textiles,  or intricately woven baskets or hanging sculptures, Castellet found her groove with these materials.

Art-in-process, installation with Massimo Dutti, Palma
Art-in-process, installation with Massimo Dutti, Palma
T

his fall, the artist was commissioned by Massimo Dutti to create a site-specific installation in the vitrine of their Palma boutique, on Calle San Feliu. As part of their art-in-progress series that highlights artists whose work reflects the island in some way, Castellet was given a carte blanche to bring the windows to life with her work. “They were very generous and it was a pleasure to collaborate with them,” she says. In Palma, they featured a series of stacking wool pouffes and several hanging baskets of different shapes and materials. Having such a generous and clear commission was ideal for the artist, who was able to develop new ideas and pieces. She also exhibited some work in the windows of their Ibiza store as well.

 

In many ways, Castellet’s work moves between art and design, in some instances it can be functional and aesthetic while other pieces are simply decorative. The process is very intuitive, following the feel of the materials as she builds and creates the shape. She often works with fresh materials and the colours naturally shift and change over time. Something that starts out green and fresh, will slowly transform overtime and take on a new texture. She also dries certain materials to create different tones of nature, or includes flowers that will dry but remain. “For me, the ephemeral aspect is more interesting than working with something heavy like marble or stone. We are ephemeral and I like to make work that is also ephemeral.”

“I returned to this interest in volume and form of my childhood, but doing it through weaving and basketry.”