Woven Metal & Fiber Sculpture by Rafala Green

While I can and have worked in a variety of sculptural mediums, I have a special affinity for working with metals specifically woven metals. The evolution of this particular preference began when I learned how to weld. My first response was how great it was to be able to take this material that is perceived as cold and rigid and by adding heat it could become soft and malleable and flowing. Add water and it would become fixed in that form permanently. Looked like a perfect metaphor for the interplay of masculine and feminine energies to me. My second discovery was that I was not interested in working in solid form that displaced space but found myself creating sculptures composed of welded rods that shifted attention from form in space to the experience of space in the form. Revelation! this work is very threadlike, like a weaving. This eventually lead me to study the techniques of weaving and basketry as a replacement to welding my forms. It was through the exploration of the unlimited possibilities of this marriage of materials that the conscious awareness of the core content of my work emerged.

Woven into the creation of all my sculpture, whether it is the result of a solo process in my studio or a community public art project, revolves around the interaction and incorporation of the following common threads: the interplay between opposites- hard/soft, hot/cold, positive/negative, old/new, solid form in the service of the expression of invisible form, the celebration and expression of the power of feminine energy and always the honoring of spirit.