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With a background in drawing and painting, my practice has taken a turn to textile sculpture and installation.
Growing up, I was raised by incredibly creative and powerful women who taught me the importance of arts and crafts in the formation of homes, lives and societies. Having culminated in being trained in various textile crafts, I developed an interest in its application to fine art. This concurrent fascination with the way fabric intersects with the human experience led to my choice of medium and ultimately the concepts explored within each artwork.
Often, my works outline my biographical experience of family and their manifestations through textile. I often avoid the use of character within the works, leaving the audience to comprehend the brutality of absence emanating from the space and its contents. This also reflects the exhaustion of domesticity displayed through the intentionally hazy colour pallets used within my art. The lack of colour draws upon ideas of grief and brain fog associated with being chronically ill and its effect on domestic relationships.
Much of my process with textile mediums is rather slow and laborious. Hand- or machine-sewn works focussing on the proper bolting together of fabrics to form a whole. However, chronic illness regularly intercedes in the practice of making, slowing the progress further. Therefore, in an endeavour to continue creating works that speak to people, I have explored more subversive methods including staples. The combination of staples and hand stitching becoming apparent to a keen eye and leaving an overbearing atmosphere of the not-so-perfect family.
The definition of family is forever evolving and with it the idea of femininity, masculinity and domesticity.
This year, I have been conducting extensive research into textile art and its development through time. Textile’s inherent connection with our everyday lives in and out of our homes makes it the perfect medium to analyse our behaviours around family life.
As I am approaching the next phase of my life, my experience of family and home are altering drastically with it. Therefore, I have chosen to reflect upon my past as a way of processing my plans for the future and what made me who I am.
My work has been developed in tandem with these biographical experiences and my research, culminating in a physical representation of the beauties and reminiscent realities of family.
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