Sculptural Assemblages
In 2019 I participated in a 2-week residency program at Castle Hill Centre for the Arts, Truro, MA. During that time, I returned to puppet-like sculptures constructed out of papier-mâché and I wrapped the bodies with bed sheet strips and colored fabrics. Different forms of web-like coverings were made and used to decorate the bodies. In some bubble wrap was trapped within the web-like structure and the viewer could see inside. The physicality of the forms became trapped within their wrappings and could not escape from their captivity. I have continued to delve deeply into the idea of physical boundaries, entrapments, and how these states cause psychological and physical traumas. I question whether coverings keep us warm and safe, or could they become stifling by keeping us contained? Do human-made barriers keep us isolated and become suffocating? My work investigates psychological forms of control over vulnerable species in captivity.
Woven Constructions
Sewing, knitting and crocheting skills have been transmitted from grandmothers to mothers and then to daughters for centuries. Hundreds of squares stitched into coverings have kept multiple families safe and warm. Over time, as those blankets were constantly being used, they have slowly faded and disintegrated, their beauty becoming closely related to history and time.
I learned my sewing skills from my mother and other female quilt makers. In 2016, I returned to creating sewn blocks of threads on my sewing machine and connecting them to form weavings reminiscent assemblages. Coming full circle with the act of sewing and weaving, choosing the colours and stitching intricate fragments has become a meditative, exhilarating and mesmerizing process. I bind fabrics, tie threads and paint the surfaces to simulate decomposing surfaces. I sometimes use hot pigmented wax so that the segments become enhanced, hardened and protected, a form of mummification.
The “Woven Constructions” are created on a simple wooden frame loom. The hand made look is important for these new works. Similar to the intent for the “Interlaced Series” I wanted to be able to vary the weaving in its open and closed areas and the actual creation of the the segments has become a meditative process.
My focus is not about the materiality and the beauty of weavings as a covering but about feelings when being trapped under different forms of coverings. At times my weavings contain tight threaded links that are stiff, unyielding and no longer representing a safe and warm place to hide under. Then at other times the segments are so dense that little light can penetrate. A symbiotic relationships between yarns, colors, patterns, textures, light and shadows.
While creating these works, I try to connect to the pain of loss and insecurity, to the covering up of truths, to the inherent vulnerability of life and death, to disintegration and impermanence, but also to sparks of beauty often found in the processes of change and fading away. My continually trying to hold together pieces of my experiences that I have lost. I build up my weavings and often destroy them - in one way the reconstruction of my psyche - a destroying and reclaiming of myself.
In 2019 I participated in a 2-week residency program at Castle Hill Centre for the Arts, Truro, MA. During that time, I returned to puppet-like sculptures constructed out of papier-mâché and I wrapped the bodies with bed sheet strips and colored fabrics. Different forms of web-like coverings were made and used to decorate the bodies. In some bubble wrap was trapped within the web-like structure and the viewer could see inside. The physicality of the forms became trapped within their wrappings and could not escape from their captivity. I have continued to delve deeply into the idea of physical boundaries, entrapments, and how these states cause psychological and physical traumas. I question whether coverings keep us warm and safe, or could they become stifling by keeping us contained? Do human-made barriers keep us isolated and become suffocating? My work investigates psychological forms of control over vulnerable species in captivity.
Woven Constructions
Sewing, knitting and crocheting skills have been transmitted from grandmothers to mothers and then to daughters for centuries. Hundreds of squares stitched into coverings have kept multiple families safe and warm. Over time, as those blankets were constantly being used, they have slowly faded and disintegrated, their beauty becoming closely related to history and time.
I learned my sewing skills from my mother and other female quilt makers. In 2016, I returned to creating sewn blocks of threads on my sewing machine and connecting them to form weavings reminiscent assemblages. Coming full circle with the act of sewing and weaving, choosing the colours and stitching intricate fragments has become a meditative, exhilarating and mesmerizing process. I bind fabrics, tie threads and paint the surfaces to simulate decomposing surfaces. I sometimes use hot pigmented wax so that the segments become enhanced, hardened and protected, a form of mummification.
The “Woven Constructions” are created on a simple wooden frame loom. The hand made look is important for these new works. Similar to the intent for the “Interlaced Series” I wanted to be able to vary the weaving in its open and closed areas and the actual creation of the the segments has become a meditative process.
My focus is not about the materiality and the beauty of weavings as a covering but about feelings when being trapped under different forms of coverings. At times my weavings contain tight threaded links that are stiff, unyielding and no longer representing a safe and warm place to hide under. Then at other times the segments are so dense that little light can penetrate. A symbiotic relationships between yarns, colors, patterns, textures, light and shadows.
While creating these works, I try to connect to the pain of loss and insecurity, to the covering up of truths, to the inherent vulnerability of life and death, to disintegration and impermanence, but also to sparks of beauty often found in the processes of change and fading away. My continually trying to hold together pieces of my experiences that I have lost. I build up my weavings and often destroy them - in one way the reconstruction of my psyche - a destroying and reclaiming of myself.