This site-specific installation series consists of vibrant red forms nailed and tied to the wall that are actually giant crochet doilies. Although non-threatening in a domestic setting, in the gallery and at this scale the forms overtake the viewer and cover the walls. This installation series has evolved over time and each expression is a response to the specific space of the installation.
The Yellow Wallpaper is the title of a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that describes the author’s mental illness and the “domestic cure” she is forced to endure where the yellow wallpaper of her bedroom becomes the catalyst for further mental decline. During the lockdown of Covid, I spent months at home undergoing my own “domestic cure” and the unsettled feelings I’ve experienced are reflected in this piece.
Queen Anne’s Lace is inspired by antique doilies and their purpose to decorate and protect the furnishings in the home. That ritual of decoration equally extends to the environment of the garden as the very public face of the home. Queen Anne’s Lace is a nod to traditional white doilies, but on a much larger, pervasive scale and ranging over the outdoor space reminiscent of the way the weed of the same name (or flower, if you see it that way) takes over a field.
Making thousands of these crochet flowers became part of my everyday life, and I sited them in my domestic space and lived with them. I documented the path that resulted as I repeatedly passed through them in the course of an ordinary afternoon.
In the gallery space, the viewer is confronted with the same flowers and a small video. The technology beckons the viewer to negotiate the handmade- to push it aside or possibly even trample it. The gesture of the viewer repeats my own movement through the flowers, but in a public rather than domestic space. In the process, the viewers’ movements ‘decorate’ the gallery space, creating new pathways and flower configurations.
In the gallery space, the viewer is confronted with the same flowers and a small video. The technology beckons the viewer to negotiate the handmade- to push it aside or possibly even trample it. The gesture of the viewer repeats my own movement through the flowers, but in a public rather than domestic space. In the process, the viewers’ movements ‘decorate’ the gallery space, creating new pathways and flower configurations.
Pink Was My Home existed as an experimental installation of objects, doilies, and sound included as part of my MFA final review. It was on display for only a day and seen by fewer than twenty people. The only part that still exists are the pink doilies that were suspended as a ceiling over a room of domestic furniture.
This is an archive of installations and commissions that were planned or proposed, but never realized.
