ARTIST STATEMENT
Awhile ago, I collected email subject titles called Spew. A spam strategy using random words to entice the receiver to open the email. This was in 2008; the spew list contains about 200 phrases. I decided to use these phrases in cloth banners expressing the chaos of the world surrounding the symbol of home. Words and visual symbols are a focus of my artwork.
The construction of these banners using cloth and thread are not a casual choice. Often called women’s work, this medium connects me to ancestral and cultural lineage. My mother and grandmother both worked with textiles. My grandmother sewed beads on couture dresses at home (a cottage industry). My mother is a weaver, making wall hangings.
Hand and machine sewing are a stronger connection to my art work than painting and drawing. I draw with thread.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
I was born in Chicago, Illinois and have lived in the same house on the far north side all of my life. I graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; earning a BFA and a MFA with a concentration in Computer Imaging and Traditional Photography. I have picked up textile art practices on my own and through family, friends and workshops.
DADA is not unfamiliar to me. I have been drawn into expressing my cultural observances through correspondence (postal/mail art) artist friends and Fluxfest; a performanced based gathering in Chicago some five years ago. Fluxus and DADA performance art has opened a new line of communication with an artist community receptive to this expression.
The basis of my inspiration comes by collecting images, words and objects (symbols representing the world around me). Combined in digital sketches leading to the final idea expressed in the medium of cloth and thread. Meaning is changeable by time and life events and unexplainable by spoken or written text.
© Adamandia K