Christian Newby & Squares & Triangles

Christian Newby incorporates techniques of industrial textile production into an experimental drawing practice, challenging the design principles and craft rhetoric commonly associated with carpet tufting. Newby has produced a floor mat for Black Tower, created through a process of improvised drawing and mark-making using a handheld tufting gun. Puffy Red Black Green and White with Lozenges (2019) is located in the lobby of the building and will be the first artwork encountered by a visitor to Black Tower. As a floor mat, it encourages an informal relationship between artwork and spectator. The work sets the tone for the project space, implying a context for art to be engaged with directly, physically, informally.

The launch of event for this commission features a live performance by Squares & Triangles, a musical collective of artists based across Copenhagen, Zurich and London. Over the past 10 years, they have developed a language of improvised song-making, drawing from the histories of jazz and improvised music, 1980s American punk and Scandinavian pop. Squares & Triangles will use Black Tower Projects as a rehearsal and recording studio in the days leading up to the event, exploring the relationship between textiles and musical composition, drawing upon techniques such as weaving, unravelling and tufting. Their public performance will be recorded and form part of a new release, scheduled 2020. 

N.b. Fragments of the Squares & Triangles performance can by found on Why Look When You Can Listen? a collection of recordings of Squares & Triangles playing live between 2013 and 2019, available here.