Kimberly English

Creel

Family blanket, warp removed

8' h x 6' w x 1" d

2018

$1400

Artist Statement

Deconstructing garments began as a way to familiarize myself with their construction. By investigating making through unmaking, the labor of the garment’s creation is revisited. In this way, cloth becomes ubiquitous with life – not only with the life of the wearer of the garment, but its maker. Because of this, my work often refers to the woman’s body and its relationships, both public and private. There is a spectrum of critical commentary present that refers to the labor enacted by women that seems in some ways ceaseless, and in others obligatory and absurd.

By recontextualizing everyday cloth, I explore themes central to the history of women’s work, its labor force, and the local impact of a global economy – primarily through found textiles. While I use this material familiarity to highlight universal themes prevalent in the garment’s connotation, I beckon the viewer to see the object and its life anew, subverting the hegemony and history stitched into the seams of the fabric.

Bio

Kimberly is an artist and educator living and working in Raleigh, North Carolina. She recently earned her MFA from UNC, and she received her BFA in Fibers as a Distinguished Scholar from Savannah College of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited across the southeast, as well as abroad.