Mare 

Naturally dyed textiles, thread, recycled textile interior

33cm x 23cm

2024

Mare is the culmination of years of exploring soft sculpture in relation to bodies, carcasses and organic forms. I am interested in creating uncomfortable objects using traditionally feminine crafts. I invite the viewer in with familiar, soft materials and then push them back with abject subject matter.

This work seeks to process my thoughts about death and grief by reflecting on how the body breaks down after death. Textiles dyed with leaves and bark are distressed and manipulated to create a form that appears to be decaying and returning to the earth - the universal fate of all living organisms.

The societal place of horses has become difficult to define; no longer mainstream transport and not quite pets. The progression of time has left them ‘othered’. I exaggerated this otherness by omitting recognisable landmarks like teeth and ears, stripping the horses’ head back to a simplified form, resulting in a face that seems alien and unformed. The creature’s ambiguity aims to conflict viewers - should they empathise with or be repulsed by this evidence of mortality?