Artist Statement
“A thing of beauty as a provocation, a meditation and a call to action”
I make textile art. I imagine that my love of thread began when I was a little girl playing underneath my mother’s sewing machine, mesmerised by the movement of her feet that made the large wheel spin, the hum of the needle and the fabric gliding back and forth. Cloth is intricately linked with our lives from our very first breaths to our final departure. Textiles are part of our myths, metaphors and cultures. They are at the heart of all my work.
There is no away. I often work with discarded materials - waste, remnants, leftovers - recalling the unwanted, the surplus, to a new purpose, a different contribution. When the state of our planet, our collective denial, our petty politics risk overwhelming me, I seek refuge in the spirit of kintsugi, the Japanese art of restoring what was broken and raising it to a whole new level of beauty. Just as I reclaim materials, in the process of making I reclaim myself. I find joy in the process of making, pleasure in working with thread.
My creative process usually begins with a core idea, fuelled by a disquiet about some of the most pressing issues of our time, including the pervasive impact of war, the looming ecological emergency, and the relentless systemic violence against women. I seek to confront those challenges, to create a space for dialogue and reflection, and ultimately for action.
