ARTIST STATEMENT
This body of work using found crochet blankets and phrases relates to care (security, comforter, and so on) centering on objects that have been handmade and discarded. With their mesh-like construction, I see a tension in the offer of warmth and protection and their innate permeability. The intention, often in giving a crochet blanket is one of connection, of labor, both of which become near valueless once discarded. The flowers I use come from multiple sources and are reconstructed to echo the flowers fading at memorials, of the “silk” flowers as substitutions for what is real that are found in so many soothingly nondescript waiting rooms and doctors’ offices.
The text is stitched onto a plastic “safety mesh” a product used for garments. Like the crochet-work, the mesh offers little in the way of any real protection, yet there is still a sweetness I see in the labor and intent that I find, I cannot quite deny.
The term caretaker, itself usually applies to the care of property or place (unlike caregiver which a person tending to another) but I am interested in it in a more literal sense. What is a person who “Takes Care?” It’s a phrase used in parting, when saying goodbye. I think of it as a person who absorbs care, who takes but without return.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Krista Cibis’ (MBA, MA Critical Studies and MFA in Fiber and Material Studies/Sculpture) maintains studios in both Chicago, Illinois and in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. Her work is largely a materials’ driven, extensive research-based practice, exploring the intricacies of place, cultural artifacts, and systems of community, centered in traditional craft techniques. She has received a Spoonflower textile design award, a year’s long residency at Textile Hive in Portland, Oregon and her solo show Better than Nothing was featured as the kick-off for Sculpture magazine’s international conference. Most recently her work was reviewed in Surface Design Magazine. She has exhibited nationally and internationally.
© Krista Cibis