I absolutely love an artist who takes what is traditionally considered a craft and uses it to make fine art. I also love an artist who takes their work very personally. This might be a little bit if narcissism because that is what I try to do in my own work a lot of the time, but I guess inspiration is partly narcissism...but that's a discussion for another time. Anyway, Stephanie Metz creates beautiful and slightly disturbing (again, you're speaking my language) felted wool sculptures. I first started following her work when I ran across her Overbred Animals series. In her newer series Pelts, she takes her experiences as a new mother and her discovery of instincts she didn't realize she had and translates them into her work.
From her website:
The messy, uncontrollable, and immensely satisfying elements of being a mother brought home to me that for all my education, tool use, and language, I am essentially a mammal.
One physical hallmark of being a mammal is possessing hair—something humans routinely try to shape, deny, remove, and contain that persists nonetheless. In this work I combine found clothing items that carry their own layers of meaning with hair that intrudes on and reshapes them as a reassertion of the closeted mammal inside. Acknowledging our mammalian roots places humankind back among - not above - other animals.
All images from Stephanie Metz's website
No comments:
Post a Comment