I was born to a seamstress mother and steel worker father in Montreal, Quebec.
Growing up around a family who continuously made nearly everything they used had a big effect on my creative upbringing. I am interested in the personal history and uses we have with clothing and the ethical process of making them. We all have a relationship to clothing in our own unique way whether it is esthetic, professional, anti establishment or purely utilitarian. I am intrigued with common links and the total divide, the sense of memory and comfort and the total subversion and gender tensions. In exploring these ideas I also search to crawl within the borders made between clothing and our bodies. Ephemeral memories are left behind on our skin from our clothing and then it repairs itself. With these etchings we can follow a type of skin mapping informing what we do in our daily lives. Searching within the garments we also find a memory in how it was made, where it was made and who made them. The anonymity found in mass produced clothing and exposing those invisible marks within an industry that makes the crafts man or woman invisible. The idea and respect of the hand made is a concept that we risk to loose and in exposing the idea of the industrialized world with the home made and bringing the body back into play is a major pursuit in my artwork.
Growing up around a family who continuously made nearly everything they used had a big effect on my creative upbringing. I am interested in the personal history and uses we have with clothing and the ethical process of making them. We all have a relationship to clothing in our own unique way whether it is esthetic, professional, anti establishment or purely utilitarian. I am intrigued with common links and the total divide, the sense of memory and comfort and the total subversion and gender tensions. In exploring these ideas I also search to crawl within the borders made between clothing and our bodies. Ephemeral memories are left behind on our skin from our clothing and then it repairs itself. With these etchings we can follow a type of skin mapping informing what we do in our daily lives. Searching within the garments we also find a memory in how it was made, where it was made and who made them. The anonymity found in mass produced clothing and exposing those invisible marks within an industry that makes the crafts man or woman invisible. The idea and respect of the hand made is a concept that we risk to loose and in exposing the idea of the industrialized world with the home made and bringing the body back into play is a major pursuit in my artwork.
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Artist Statement
The functioning of standardized, technologically enhanced labor in the industrialized world crossed with craft culture and the relationship between dress, culture, gender and subversion are the themes I revolve around in my work. Usually I link these subjects with textile-based materials. The use of textile has a tactility and is inseparably linked to our ideas of life and the body. Using textile and yarns allows me to process them just like they would be in repetitive work technique done in the industrialized world. The work also incorporate multi media video projections to create a dreamy escape or incorporated accompaniments to the textile work pushing it into and interactive realm.
The method of recreating garments allows me to experience the process involved in building the piece, the process becomes the point, and carefully through a series of media presentation acting as conduit for the empathic extension of the "witness" or "viewer". Often these garments are not meant to be worn but used as a metaphor for the body, life and labor. Our personal connection with garments and realities of the labor processes are explored through this interaction. This is so the viewer can become involved in the production of the piece in addition to the obvious finished product to provide a depth and push the effect of the work’s message further. In doing so it seems the viewer spends more time examining the work and therefore much more sensorially involved in the interaction and thinking about the ideas being examined in the work. Process is an important part of my work whether I am sewing, knitting, crocheting weaving or printing. This incorporated with interactive elements the work aims to push the limits of communicating, with the intentions for the art to work at a visceral level. My installations are primarily situations in which the viewer can participate or interact to feel like they have been through an immersive experience. The participation allows us to question what we think about engineered textiles and the emotional response generated through familiarity. I hope to make people aware of issues associated with the themes of modern industrial labor and the production issues and personal connections we have through clothing and crafted objects |
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