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In wanting this I pit myself against myself
In wanting, this I pit myself against myself
Hand quilted and dyed indigo, cyanotype, housecoat, wedding veil, denim, hospital gown
36x50
By Brittney Denham
Artist Statement:
My work is deeply rooted in personal narrative, while tangentially being woven into a collective experience. For the past 8 years, and into the foreseeable future I am exploring the complexities of motherhood identity, body as environment, using craft by expanding and contracting, at times conforming to tradition, while simultaneously budding up against what craft is. Examples like, using alternative photographic processes for a material palette, growing natural plant matter for dyeing, and hand quilting. Subverting maternal materials to underpin sociopolitical issues of rural healthcare disparity, fertility, and loss. Using quilted objects as a catalyst to intertwine my lived experience with women before me and standing in solidarity with communities of women currently.
In my practice I intentionally employ techniques and textiles that lend themselves to layered conversations of the maternal. When dyeing fabric, I go through the process ofcreating an indigo vat by first making what is called a Mother. Madder root, onion skins, avocado pits, and cutch are boiled to create flesh-like tones that bare resemblance to the body. I use passed-down textiles like gifted tea towels, my wedding veil, or fabric from my hospital gown when I experienced fertility loss, or birth. I utilize the alternative photographic process of cyanotypes, historically created to capture flora and fauna data, produce copies, and later blueprints. I use these to reference the beginning of my own child’s life, a human coming from someone else, a copy of the original. These techniques are an act of caregiving, an act of labor.
By nature, quilts are first seen through the lens of a domestic object, one for comfort, for cover, for warmth. After treating and collecting textiles, I piece them together to create compositions referencing the body, a calendar of months pregnant, children lost, fertility windows, feeding schedules, and childlike icons of houses or homes that have the scale of a mother carrying a child, or a pregnant belly. The quilts range from historical half-square piecing that represents stability, strength, and tradition, to spray-painted improvisational works that look fractured and out of control, mimicking the spectrum of caregiving. Finally, the pieces are hand quilted to replicate the physicality, labor, and imperfection that is motherhood.
In wanting, this I pit myself against myself
Hand quilted and dyed indigo, cyanotype, housecoat, wedding veil, denim, hospital gown
36x50
By Brittney Denham
Artist Statement:
My work is deeply rooted in personal narrative, while tangentially being woven into a collective experience. For the past 8 years, and into the foreseeable future I am exploring the complexities of motherhood identity, body as environment, using craft by expanding and contracting, at times conforming to tradition, while simultaneously budding up against what craft is. Examples like, using alternative photographic processes for a material palette, growing natural plant matter for dyeing, and hand quilting. Subverting maternal materials to underpin sociopolitical issues of rural healthcare disparity, fertility, and loss. Using quilted objects as a catalyst to intertwine my lived experience with women before me and standing in solidarity with communities of women currently.
In my practice I intentionally employ techniques and textiles that lend themselves to layered conversations of the maternal. When dyeing fabric, I go through the process ofcreating an indigo vat by first making what is called a Mother. Madder root, onion skins, avocado pits, and cutch are boiled to create flesh-like tones that bare resemblance to the body. I use passed-down textiles like gifted tea towels, my wedding veil, or fabric from my hospital gown when I experienced fertility loss, or birth. I utilize the alternative photographic process of cyanotypes, historically created to capture flora and fauna data, produce copies, and later blueprints. I use these to reference the beginning of my own child’s life, a human coming from someone else, a copy of the original. These techniques are an act of caregiving, an act of labor.
By nature, quilts are first seen through the lens of a domestic object, one for comfort, for cover, for warmth. After treating and collecting textiles, I piece them together to create compositions referencing the body, a calendar of months pregnant, children lost, fertility windows, feeding schedules, and childlike icons of houses or homes that have the scale of a mother carrying a child, or a pregnant belly. The quilts range from historical half-square piecing that represents stability, strength, and tradition, to spray-painted improvisational works that look fractured and out of control, mimicking the spectrum of caregiving. Finally, the pieces are hand quilted to replicate the physicality, labor, and imperfection that is motherhood.