Collecting, sifting, sorting.
It’s been a busy summer…a solo show, some commission work and my scholarship to study in Venice. And now here we are. My Extremely Supernormal exhibition has recently closed. What a beautifully hung show by Solaris Gallery and so so wonderful to meet all those who visited, some of whom now collect my work. It feels really special to be able to talk more about the stories behind my pieces and to speak to people about which pieces resonated with them and why.
And now it is on to the next project.
I’ve always enjoyed having several projects on the go and I constantly collect pre-loved objects - the source materials for my pieces. The collecting doesn’t stop but now that a busy summer period has finished, I have dedicated time to focus on these new projects. The collecting has continued but now it is time for sifting and sorting.
I’ll be sorting through old photographs that I have earmarked in my mind and in journals. This time it will be looking back at my own family’s photographs, found in old albums, boxes and plastic envelopes. Sifting through collected pre-loved objects that bear the mark of time and of their previous owners.
The apron with ‘Stuff Housework’ with a visibly mended hole in black stitching that I found in a vintage shop on a recent trip to Australia. That mend makes me wonder if the housework got the better of their owner. The handwritten captions next to the Polaroid photograph, written in all capitals and in blue pen ink. The tick next to a recipe in a women’s magazine - I wonder if its owner did in fact cook it, in the end?
The handmade dress I found in a thrift store, made from a bird of paradise print fabric; my Nonna always did love those flowers and grew them in her garden alongside every vegetable, fruit and flower you could imagine. It was a Willy Wonka-type set-up with every surface used for growing. Even aubergines (eggplants) were grafted and growing from a peach tree to maximise the space for growing. I did not make that story up. It happened.
Piles of vintage women’s magazines, aprons and handmade dresses that live in my studio will be uncovered, reimagined and reconstructed. I’ll be keeping an archive of the process here, so keep me company as I go. But for now - as I simulatenaously think of the grocery shopping I need to do in between making collages and before school pick up - stuff the housework.
