Amanda Thompson
Amanda Thompson is a British digital art designer living in Japan.She uses computer software to work sketches and photos into mainly vector graphics. Computer systemisation processes and randomisations are tools to create base tessellations and plan colouring schemas.
Patterns, tiling, tessellations and geometry influence recent work. Travel in Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Uzbekistan allowed vivid experiences of pattern and design. The use of line and form in Japanese traditional crafts as well as colour from contemporary fashion influence current work. Modern digital printing techniques allow production of limited edition pieces to wear and display beyond the computer screen screen.
Lazapia can be hung for display or worn. Plant structures combine regularity with irregularity. Diagrams of machinery and mechanical systems have similar elegance. This work echoes those types of structure. The component parts are from the same plant type but unique. The work uses four base structures and four base colours. The systematic structure of the plants in the design is unnatural but intriguing. Japanese ikebana art has a fine balance between the natural and the contrived. Human relation to plants is complex: we seek to understand nature through classification, harness nature for food and production but also to own it as aesthetic novelty. And poses questions. Does it work? How? Should it have to?