Benjamin Shine: 3Fold

Benjamin Shine's works are on show at the Intercontinental Sydney Double Bay until December, 2025.

Known for his masterly use of the delicate netting, the British-born, Canberra-based artist has collaborated with Givenchy and Margiela, counts Beyonce and Jay Z as fans and just had his debut solo show in Sydney.

Benjamin Shine has spent nearly two decades transforming single pieces of tulle - the delicate netting often used in couture and bridalwear - into intricate portraits.

A graduate of the prestigious arts and design college Central Saint Martins, the British-born, Canberra-based artist became fascinated by fabric's sculptural potential when he first studied fashion design. He later began experimenting with leftover fabric remnants from his clothing design work. "I said to myself, 'I think I could design anything. I don't see why it has to be just clothes,'" Shine says.

Shine developed a meticulous folding and ironing technique to create portraits made of tulle using a single piece of the material. In recent years, he's collaborated with fashion houses like Givenchy and Maison Margiela on one-off collections and couture pieces, created custom window installations for luxury New York department store Bergdorf Goodman, and has been collected by Beyonce. His works are also held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection.

His latest body of work, 3Fold, explores the fold itself, through tulle and other mediums, including metal. Here, Shine talks about his technical process, his experience working with some of fashion's biggest names and his latest exhibition.

3Fold

You recently had your debut solo show, 3Fold, in Sydney. Tell us about it.

It allows the viewer to be able to see the start or genesis of an idea, and how it can take on completely three different routes. The basis is the fold - that's the starting point. Tulle paintings, mixing and combining colours using the transparent nature of the material, through folding and bunching and layering - that's one form of using the fold.

Another series called Fold [featured] powder-coated aluminium. It takes the core component of the tulle work and expands it into laser-cut metal mesh reliefs. I took it to a metal fabricator and they said, "There's no way you can fold a piece of metal that way." I figured out a way to do it myself in the end, and I took it back to them and said, "I've done it now!"

Nexus was a play on cause and effect with resin-infused pleated felt works transformed into solid sculptural forms. What happens when two different shapes come into contact or infiltrate a soft cloth or canvas? How does it respond and what compositions emerge?

Words by Gitika Garg | broadsheet.com.au




Time: 10am- 5pm



 InterContinental Sydney View Venue
 117 Macquarie St Sydney New South Wales 2000 Map

→ www.benjaminshine.com

→ www.interconsydney.com.au

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