Enne Tesse ARTICUL CTION A C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t R e v i e w Special Issue imagery. German art critic and historian Michael Fried once stated that 'materials do not represent, signify, or allude to anything; they are what they are and nothing more.' What werethe propertiesthat you are searching for in the materials that you include in your works? Enne Tesse: I am attracted to materials that have everyday practical uses. In addition to fabric and textiles, I have used book pages, beeswax, glass, India ink and brick. Sources of my inspiration are early medieval garments including tunics, gowns, and robes and their course-textured fabric woven from roots of plants, goat hair, single-ply wool, linen, and plain sackcloth. I am also interested in materials that stain and discolor with use and time. Fabric and paper share many of these qualities. These subtle differences in color and texture are to me signs of past participation of the hand. Found ready-made objects also play an important role in my creative process. I would like to note that my works are not wearable garments. They are intended to exist on a dress form stand, which is a found object taken from my personal history. At the same time, the dress form is an underlying support structure representing a given form that approximates reality and idealizes the human body. Other found objects I have used are polypropylene rope, gelatin capsules, and, of course, nylon zip ties. We are not only surrounded by these products everyday, but also, often forced to use them. Unsilent Stitches was inspired by early 20th appreciate your sapient use of materials as century suffragette clothing: do you think wool yarn, elastic bands, nylon zip cable ties that your artistic research respond to a and jute twine, that the viewer could particular cultural moment? recognize as belonging to ordinary life's Enne Tesse: I do not connect with one