Artist Statement:
I am a British artist currently completing my BA (Hons) in Fine Art at the University of Derby. Predominately working within textile installation, my current interdisciplinary practice explores the intersections of gender, identity, literature, and female narratives. One of my most recent pieces titled ‘Be the Serpent Under It’ explores the taboo of expressing feminine rage through a mixed-media immersive, textile installation. This installation consists of a hand crochet canopy, stretched, and suspended from each wall. Torn frayed fabrics repeatedly knotted together in conjunction with red ‘bodily’ shades are used to convey connotations of power, menstruation, and feminine rage. Crushed red velvet spans the floor of the installation providing the staging for 7 ‘egg-shaped’ crochet ceramic slip-casts. Hand crochet is an important aspect within my practice because of the intimate, labour intensive, seductive aesthetic it creates. This aesthetic can often be implicitly viewed within each piece. My ongoing practice has been and continues to be, influenced by research into the artists, Mary Kelly, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Micha Cardenas and Tai Shani, because of the way each artist explores and deconstructs binary ways of being. I am currently interested in the way artists such as Kelly and Cardenas have drawn upon Lacanian psychoanalysis to approach art from more of a social scientist perspective. This area of research is something I wish to explore further throughout my progression onto my MA.