Title: Eau vive 4
Running Water 4
Running Water series
Format: Five panels each 147 x 46 cm – 4ft 10in x 1ft 6in
Weight: Five panels each 0.425 g – 15 oz
Date: 2019 – 2021
Nos. 210.2021.1 to 214.2021.5
Technique: hand-stitched, then hand-quilted as three layers, including one that’s back-to-front, and one silk core.
Five sets of 1,365 3-cm textile squares
Description: Created after Running Water 3, Running Water 4 comprises five panels, each works in their own right. They have been assembled “inside out” to create a honeycomb surface that catches the light, while also bringing novel relief to the textile, conferring a soft sensuality. Each textile fragment seems to blend into the next, creating a blurry optical sensation, akin to Impressionism.
The overall composition slants ever steeper, suggesting a mountain, a torrent or the moraine of a glacier. The broken lines of quilting amplify the sensation of falling.
Exhibited in Dukes of Guimarães Palace, Portugal, in 2022.
Title: Eau vive 1
Running Water 1
Running Water series
Format: 152 x 144 cm – 4ft 12 in x 4ft 9in
Weight: 1.060 g – 2 lb 5 oz
Date: 2015 – 2016
No. 186.2016.3
Technique: 4,095 textile squares 3-cm wide, hand-assembled and quilted on a canvas base with a silk core
Description: Eau vive 1 | Running Water 1, follows on from the Moments series. The Karl Hermann Haupt motif produces harmony with myriad shades of blue, softened with an oblique line. The vibrant composition appears to flow, or spring, from left to right and vice versa.
The 15 blocks of 273 textile squares were designed as a whole and pinned on canvases to hone the motion effect prior to assemblage. Some textiles feature in more than one block. The overall curving assemblage accentuates the main oblique line.
To join the three layers and add relief to the piece, quilted straight lines accentuate the direction of the flow
Working on Running Water 1, Sabine Cibert was fascinated by the underside even though it was to disappear during the process of assembling the three thicknesses. This inspired her to display the underside, which is precisely what she achieved with Running Water 3.
Exhibited in Dukes of Guimarães Palace, Portugal, in 2022.
Title: Eau vive 3
Running Water 3
Running Water series
Format: 152 x 215 cm – 4ft 12 in x 7ft 1in
Weight: 1.615 g – 3 lb 9 oz
Date: 2016 – 2017
No. 194.2017.3
Technique: 6,825 textile squares 3cm wide, hand-assembled and quilted on a canvas base with a silk core
Description: Running water 1, follows on from the Moments series
Photos taken of the back of Running Water 1 inspired another fabric effect in another, wider format. The oblique line in the original motif has been softened
This achieves a honeycomb surface, revealing a new fabric with a relief pattern. The textile fragments seem to each melt into the next, producing a blurry optical sensation, almost Impressionist in its feel. Between Running Water 1 and Running Water 3, the textile squares have gained in mobility, looking swifter, following a sharper slope in a landscape depicting the confluence of light and shade. This new relief assemblage achieves a floaty, sensual effect, as if fabric were layered with ether.
Exhibited in Dukes of Guimarães Palace, Portugal, in 2022.
Title: Eau vive 2
Running Water 2
Running Water series
Format: 210 x 441 cm – 6ft 11in x 14ft 6in
Weight: 4.400 g – 9 lb 11 oz
Date: 2014 – 2019
No. 199.2019.3
Technique: 3,276 squares of fabric 6.5-cm wide, hand-assembled and quilted on a canvas base with a silk core.
12 blocks of 13 x 21 squares
Description: Running Water 2 was initially prepared in 2014, then left unfinished, awaiting an opportune moment for completion. With the vocabulary developed for Running Water 3, then The Skin of the World, the 3-D assembly was embarked upon in 2018, with finishing touches in 2019.
This is Sabine Cibert’s most monumental work, covering a surface of over 9 sq.m.
Myriad shades of blue tumble down a steepening slope in scenery spreading over the entire surface, where shade and light meet.
The three layers are secured together with quilting through a silk core along broken lines that follow the slanting curves.
Exhibited in Dukes of Guimarães Palace, Portugal, in 2022.
Series:
Dawn
Seasons
Thaw
Magma
Running Water
Semagram
Moments
Five squares
Time and Space
Circles
Alhambra
Other works 2009 – 2013
Collaborative projects
