This textile, entitled ‘Eye’, was produced as part of a series of collaborative works by Leeds based textile design practitioner Laura Slater and London based visual artist Mawuena Kattah. The series is entitled ‘Eye Eye’ and is intended as the first in an ongoing programme of collaboration by the two artists producing design, product and visual art applications.

Laura Slater’s practice focuses on the significance of textiles and pattern design as a vehicle for engagement with art as part of the everyday. She is currently utilising traditional production methods of screen-print and exploring the relevance of textile design in a gallery context.
Mawuena Kattah’s practice comprises ceramics, drawings and pattern design. She has a keen interest in the joy of pattern and its role within family and community. She is influenced by Ghanaian batik pattern sourced from family photo archives and Brixton Market. These vibrant patterns often serve as a backdrop to her watercolours of female family members.

With the collections of The Whitworth as a starting point, the two artists looked at artists’ prints and textiles and explored the nuances between artist and designer. Shared methods and tools were then used to approach the image development, drawing and making of this piece together. The resulting pattern is made up of loosely depicted eyes in joyful pink, orange and yellow with darker blue and green foils on a white background. The multi-directional pattern sends the eye in numerous directions and bursts with freedom and energy. Its large scale and free configuration suggest an abstract artwork, but it is nonetheless a repeating pattern printed on linen. Slater and Kattah thereby explore and celebrate the outermost attributes of pattern.