Statement
My work continues to explore an art (craft) often associated with a feminine tradition, with the use of hand-stitched household textiles. This is then combined with images from contemporary popular culture (magazines), to highlight issues faced by women; particularly the airbrushed and unreal imagery that encourages women to starve, cut and stitch themselves to physical ‘perfection’, making them ‘objects’ to be looked at, rather than active individuals and intelligent contributors to culture and meaning in society.
By using the personal (hand-stitched), with the public (magazines), I wish to investigate personal experiences and feelings about being a ‘woman’ and a 'mother', against public notions of what being a ‘woman’ and 'mother' is, and to explore the way women are portrayed visually. By playing with public images of women and cutting and stitching them together in a different way I hope to say something new, creating alternative narratives, and hopefully raising questions for the viewer.
More recent work is beginning to look at the role of text - again, both public and private uses of it, as well as the concept of ‘fine art’ versus ‘craft’, by making work on canvas and with paper collages alongside my hand-stitched work.
By using the personal (hand-stitched), with the public (magazines), I wish to investigate personal experiences and feelings about being a ‘woman’ and a 'mother', against public notions of what being a ‘woman’ and 'mother' is, and to explore the way women are portrayed visually. By playing with public images of women and cutting and stitching them together in a different way I hope to say something new, creating alternative narratives, and hopefully raising questions for the viewer.
More recent work is beginning to look at the role of text - again, both public and private uses of it, as well as the concept of ‘fine art’ versus ‘craft’, by making work on canvas and with paper collages alongside my hand-stitched work.