Artist Statement

This body of work began with experimentation into how stitch could be used with an idiosyncratic approach to evoke curiosity and challenge perceptions.

The use of stitch was significant because it originated from the women in the past whose practice was categorised as a lesser art form to that of painting or sculpture. The women artists of the 1970s whose stitched work fought for recognition and equality made a vital contribution to the breaking down of boundaries, however, recent statistics identify that the visibility of women artists is still not equal to that of white men. Many women artists are unaware of this. The situation for artists of colour is even worse.

By stitching in copper and glass my aim was to merge materials that in the past had been considered masculine, with a process that was traditionally regarded as female. When this process and the materials were heated in the kiln the glass took on the soft characteristics of fabric. I term this procedure, ‘feminisation’.

More recently the work has grown from small sculptures into installation pieces with incorporation of shadows. My intention with the inclusion of shadow was an attempt to look beyond the object and consider its shadow: a presence that confirms an absence, echoing the absence of women artists and artists of colour in the artworld. To evolve the idea of the presence/absence dichotomy, I included fictitious shadows into the installation.