Nobody 1, 2014, imitation leather, found leather, velvet, used clothing, zips, hair, acrylic paint, stitch, print; H190 x W70 x D70 cm, 5.5kg approx
Nobody 2, 2014, imitation leather, felted hand knitting, zips, stitch; H175 x W40 x D60cm, 2.9kg approx
Nobody 3, 2014, hand knitted wool, knitting needles, H200 (including hanging knitting needles and yarn) x W55 x D55cm, 3.2 kg approx
Nobodies, 2014, installed at Synecdoche, Embassy Tea Gallery, London, June
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Nobodies is a series of three soft sculptures, hanging from meat hooks and chains, which explore ways that cloth and stitch can evoke the abject in art. The critical theorist, Julia Kristeva, describes the abject as the instinctive feeling of horror ‘to a threatened breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between self and other’. It is that which inherently disturbs conventional identity and cultural concepts. In 2014, for my undergraduate dissertation,'Second skin: used clothing andrepresentations of the body in the work of Louise Bourgeois and Christian Boltanski', I researched the different ways that two fine artists use empty second-hand clothing in their work to suggest a physical absence and ultimately, death, the most extreme abjection. Choosing to use cloth in sculpture can powerfully subvert traditional representations of the body.
Using a series of photo cut-outs from a photo montage book I made my son for his 18th birthday, the idea of ‘body, no body, nobody’ was born. Each photo has a distinctive cut-out shape, framed with a memory of a place or time. For this project I am examining my responses to my only child leaving home and the impact that has had on my life. I have been exploring ways to communicate the mixture of emotions involved in this transition, in terms of identity and purpose, loss and absence, through the visual language of abjection. What is left behind when someone leaves? Although it describes a personal journey, it will inevitably resonate with others.
Nobody 1, 2014, found leather and imitation leather, used clothing, velvet, zips, flocking, paint, stitch, print
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I used some of my son's old tshirts, printing them with images from the cutout photos using flocking. I also stitched some of the images, drawing them onto the leather and imitation leather, creating complex, textural, hairy skin-like surfaces. I stitched these parts together, like a crazy patchwork, using stuffing, zips and other devices to craete the form.
Nobody 1, 2014, detail of the stitched 'hairy' drawings on leather and imitation leather
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Nobody 1, 2014, detail of the stitched 'hairy' drawings and flocked printing on used clothing, leather and imitation leather
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Nobody 1, 2014, detail of the stitched 'hairy' drawings; one of these is stitched with my own hair
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It was on the strength of Nobody 1 that I was awarded The Embroiderers' Guild Scholarship for 2015-16. Read more about it in my blog posts -Cloth and the abject, The dark side of stitch and my It's the end of my Embroiderers' Guild Scholar's year
Nobody 2, 2014, detail, imitation leather, felted hand knitting, zips, stitch
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Nobody 3, 2014, hand knitted wool, knitting needles
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Find out how a large knitted sculpture inspired by the sea became Nobody 3 !