'Hands: Exploring Memory & Identity'

For this collection, I explored the concepts of identity and memory, abstractly represented through the motif of hands. The desire to leave behind a handprint to show we were here is a “shared creative impulse that transcends time and culture” (Heard Museum, 2018). I used a wide variety of ‘feminine’ materials and techniques within the ‘domestic arts’ realm to acknowledge the history of women’s forgotten role in using these crafts, as well as to reflect my experiences as a woman and feminist working within the textile art community. My research into the ‘Domestic Arts' and crafts, in conjunction with my own memories of hands, specifically my childhood abuse ‘at the hands’ of my mother, informed my choice of feminine materials and techniques in order to subvert the traditional notion of textiles as nurturing, practical objects made for the home and family. My key visual influences were the Surrealist art movement and Early human art, specifically cave paintings which I believe best captures the theme of memory and identity through a handprint immortalised on stone.