My MFA2 year began with a continued exploration of the aesthetic qualities of fabric and wire and is on full display in my work Relic 3. It also explores the concept of a body as an assemblage of parts as discussed by Deleuze. Frozen in a moment of time, defying gravity, the work hangs on a wall at eye level. It consists of three pieces of found cotton sheeting stretched loosely and draping over a wire frame that has been twisted out of shape to distort its original form. Immersion into neutral plaster slurry gives the work a fragile solidity. Over time, the surface of the work transforms itself as the plaster dries and cracks leaving tiny crevices and shadows creating a miniature, rocky landscape.
My collaboration with these materials began as an exploration of the combination of fabric and plaster endeavouring to embody the fluidity of the fabric in a more permanent state. At one level, the work evokes a stressful tension as the skin of the surface of the fabric mutates as a result of alchemic and atmospheric circumstances such as ambient climactic variations. At the same time, the work has the non-gendered quality of an unearthed draped relic.
