MANDY SHINDLER
TEXTILE ARCHITECT
01 artist statement
As I sit at the machine my hands are guiding a piece of linen under the needle the rhythm of the tik tik tik tik tik tik tik tik modulates the stitches and creates traces. As I step on the foot pedal it goes faster tuk tuk tuk tuk tuk. My arms are rigid creating the narrative. I’m creating this embodied, nomadic tactile form that translates into softness, feminism, I’m sitting, and I am not standing……I am intertwining a pattern that is organic and infinite NOT Block building which is masculine and hierarchical and final….. weaving not block building…… I am the hysterical, screaming cursing women with all my emotions and passion that have labelled me throughout my life as a difficult woman. I am now embodying a form of feminism that I have not allowed myself to feel before. I am discovering its possibilities for empowerment to bring to this discipline of architecture. textileartist architect fibreart
The beginning of building coincides with the beginning of textiles and the most fundamental elements of both buildings and textiles was the KNOT. So, I am, then, knot building.
Going back in time, on a biblical scale, to the nomadic traditions in Africa, it was us, women, who produced and maintained the architecture. Building was often, generally, women’s work. Warfare, politics and animal husbandry was men’s work. We also cared for and educated the children, prepared the food, cut the wood, fetched the water. The invention of the public realm and its architecture in Europe and East Asia saw the transference of architecture from the private realm of women into the ‘world’ — which was politics, men’s work.
Here, now, we can speak about space making/phenomenology as part of being human. It’s like when a spider spins a web — that’s architecture. Women’s weaving was her text. Today the C21 women no longer sits.textileartist
02 portfolio
03 artist bio
Shindler is a recently qualified architect and fibre artist based in Johannesburg. She is a former student at the Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg. Her final project, entitled Labour of Love: a Birthing Centre for the 21st Century was awarded a distinction and was widely considered one of the most innovative and ground-breaking projects of its year. Her complete Masters portfolio work was done in Fibre.
She began her studies in architecture in her forties, after raising a family and having a successful business. Her work at the Graduate School of Architecture, paved the way for young women architecture students to explore issues of identity, gender, power and feminism in previously unheard-of-ways. In March 2020 Shindler was invited to the Spitzer School of Architecture in New York to exhibit and speak about her work.
She is currently creating several textile series and wall art that relates to her life and her passion in architecture, lines and textiles. Shindler’ work is very experimental as she breaks the boundaries of textile wall art, she uses many mediums including but not limited to hand dyeing, screen printing and paint dyeing.
Interviews: click on link GSA Mandy Shindler ,
Breaking Ground New York, March 2020
Publications: Radical Noir