Artist Statement
This series of work has evolved from my long time interest in the vessel form and its notions of containment. Gradually, the work began to reference the body as I began to seek more personal meaning within the content. In my current work, I have been exploring the concept of clothing and materiality as a form of symbolic communication about the body. I am especially interested in how dress and adornment define social structure, ritual, and identity
This work is inspired from historical references to Elizabethan styles of dress, as well as contemporary fashion. The dresses are more figurative, while the collars are more ambiguous and conceptual. I am attracted to the collar as a form, as well as the loaded content associated with these ornamental garments. Both explore psychological notions of entrapment and oppression through adornment and embellishment.
Obsessive process and passion for materials have always been significant elements in my work. Materials are selected for their aesthetic quality and communicative power. I enjoy using materials that have a familiarity, but are distanced from usual reference and association. I tend to use mostly recycled metal and wire to make my forms. Structurally, metal and wire have the ability to hold form, yet remain malleable. Conceptually, these materials relate to armor and opulence, and have a memory that defines a mass that once occupied the form. Laborious fiber techniques such as stitching, wrapping, plaiting, and weaving, allow the work to slowly evolve, creating an intimate and meaningful relationship. These processes also relate to the history of creating the feminine ideal. The intuitive aspect of repeated motion brings something into being that is elegant and at once transcendent.
These provocative forms created by transformative process and seduction of material examine how we represent ourselves and how we are culturally defined. Removal of the body calls attention to the artifice of clothing and demands that we also examine what is not represented. Absence and presence are equally significant.
This series of work has evolved from my long time interest in the vessel form and its notions of containment. Gradually, the work began to reference the body as I began to seek more personal meaning within the content. In my current work, I have been exploring the concept of clothing and materiality as a form of symbolic communication about the body. I am especially interested in how dress and adornment define social structure, ritual, and identity
This work is inspired from historical references to Elizabethan styles of dress, as well as contemporary fashion. The dresses are more figurative, while the collars are more ambiguous and conceptual. I am attracted to the collar as a form, as well as the loaded content associated with these ornamental garments. Both explore psychological notions of entrapment and oppression through adornment and embellishment.
Obsessive process and passion for materials have always been significant elements in my work. Materials are selected for their aesthetic quality and communicative power. I enjoy using materials that have a familiarity, but are distanced from usual reference and association. I tend to use mostly recycled metal and wire to make my forms. Structurally, metal and wire have the ability to hold form, yet remain malleable. Conceptually, these materials relate to armor and opulence, and have a memory that defines a mass that once occupied the form. Laborious fiber techniques such as stitching, wrapping, plaiting, and weaving, allow the work to slowly evolve, creating an intimate and meaningful relationship. These processes also relate to the history of creating the feminine ideal. The intuitive aspect of repeated motion brings something into being that is elegant and at once transcendent.
These provocative forms created by transformative process and seduction of material examine how we represent ourselves and how we are culturally defined. Removal of the body calls attention to the artifice of clothing and demands that we also examine what is not represented. Absence and presence are equally significant.
