Hâf Thompson

Light pollution impacts everyone: 80% of the world is living in a state of constant glow (Dark Sky UK: 2024) and yet there is a fundamental lack of concern for the impact of artificial lighting. Over the course of this year, I have observed and photographed artificial lighting in my everyday life, stopping and noticing the glow which is a constant presence in an urban environment.  

I have adapted a needlework technique, known as Drawn Thread Work, using only the preparatory stage where threads are removed systematically from either the warp or weft to expose a rectangular panel where opacity in the fabric has been halved. I have realised its potential for contemporary application by applying it to the context of large-scale panels of textiles within architectural settings. I use this technique to minutely alter thread-by-thread the amount of light which passes through a space. 

The Bortle Dark-Sky Scale is a nine-level numeric scale for measuring sky brightness and interpreting the impact of light pollution. Conceptually influenced by this scale, I have produced a series of textile panels directly aligned to a spectrum of increasing opacity. My textiles are designed to soften light precisely, intended to be a beautiful part of any space, whilst functioning as an architectural tool for controlling light, amplifying it, scattering it, and creating a mood. 

Also influenced by Reductivism logic, where work emphasises clarity and simplicity through reduction, I have used all un-dyed fabrics and a combination of second-hand and new materials, to deconstruct surfaces slowly and intentionally, through a process of removal, never adding.