jette clover
fiber art and mixed media
Bio
Jette was born and raised in Copenhagen, Denmark, but she has lived and worked for many years in USA and the Netherlands. Since 2005 she has been living in Antwerp, Belgium.
She was a journalist before she became an artist, which explains why text and lettering almost always are present in her work. She is also an art historian and worked for 10 years at the Dutch Textile Museum, curating exhibitions and organising educational programs. Since 1998 she has worked full time as a studio artist.
Jette has exhibited widely in USA, Europe, Asia and Australia and she is a sought after teacher for workshops in surface design and mixed media. She has been a member of the European group Quilt Art since 2000, and she was a member of the Art Quilt/New York group for ten years. She is a board member of SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association) and served as its international representative for Europe and Israel for three years.
Artist statement.
Since the dawn of time mankind has been making marks to communicate - from signs and symbols in early cave paintings to spray-painted messages on urban walls. I love living in the city with the haphazard layers of overlapping posters, faded advertisements, notes of missing pets and cryptic graffiti. Seeing the fragmented traces of text on the walls, makes me wonder about the traces I myself will be leaving behind and how they will be interpreted.
I was a journalist before I became an artist, and text and language continue to be my main source of inspiration. I like words, both because of their graphic quality and because of their ability to convey meaning. I print and screen letters on fabric, and stitching has become a new way of writing for me. Stitching resembles the rhythm of writing with a pen - a slow, intimate process during which one becomes aware of the marking of time.
My work is collage constructions. I usually combine cotton, linen, silk, cheese cloth and paper to which I apply a variety of surface design techniques, including dyeing, painting, discharge, printing, screening, and rusting.
I could be painting with oil on canvas, but I like working in the textile medium, because of the tactile quality and because of its association with women's work and history.
Authored Books.
Words and Walls, Ilg Drukkerei, Wimmis, Switzerland, 2013
Small Notes, Ilg Drukkerei, Wimmis, Switzerland, 2010
Naden/ Seams, Trobador, the Netherlands, 2001
Scandinavian Quilts (co-author), Tokyo, Japan, 2001
The Art of Joan Schulze (co-author), San Francisco, CA, 1999
European Art Quilts, Nederlands Textielmuseum, Tilburg, the Netherlands, 1997
Affiliations.
Quilt Art
SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association)
Video interviews.