April 6, 2024 - April 30, 2024
ArtWalk and Artist Reception: Thursday April 11, 5-8pm
Statement:
I have constructed artist books for years, but the pandemic lockdown gave me the time to explore the materials I had collected for decades: snapshots, diaries, antique textiles, and re-examine the very essence of the book. Can a dress be a book if it is a vehicle for text?
Experiments led to the inevitable yet organic synthesis: STORYWEAR. For this series, I transcribed both my own short stories (often inspired by vernacular snapshots) and anonymous diary entries onto vintage baby clothes; many garments are illustrated with stitched on photographs. I am fascinated with found objects, the collision of modern and antique, but mostly with the constant dialogue between feminism and femininity.
I believe these open-ended experiments into the intensely personal and the mundane have allowed me to use the multi-faceted lens of past and present to create works that open up the future.
The STORYWEAR concept then expanded to include domestic objects – pillows, dolls and luggage – as I explored the more sculptural materials in my collection.
The third segment of STORYWEAR is DEAR JOE. The text is based on over 300 vintage postcards written by Tony to his brother Joe, from 1949-1952, during Tony’s hospitalization in a local mental institution. In this triptych, I created a visual diary by transcribing Tony’s almost daily postcards onto three men’s handkerchiefs and incorporated the actual postcards along with anonymous snapshots and found objects to document his stay in that institution.
