Self Soothers
SELF SOOTHERS explores our need for intimacy, care and nurturing; the places that we find solace; and our complex relationship with commodity culture and fast fashion. Gathering materials and items from our everyday; food, clothes, rags, blankets, wool and cut ups combine to create ‘soft’ textile-based works.
Snakes hang from the ceiling disconnected from their source and in a fast fashion skin. The snake, as a Celtic symbol for rebirth, healing, and wisdom, was understood to came from inside of the earth, holding the world’s secrets and wisdom, an earth healer. In time the snake became a Christian symbol for the devil and paganism, often depicted under the foot of the Virgin Mary.
Other elements of this exhibition combine and gesture towards the types of care, sustenance and measures for survival that are needed now and for the future. Bundles of textiles become vulnerable parcels of energy and embodied carbon.