In Touch with Reality

2020, embroidery on leather

Whenever there are major periods of transformation in society, from the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century to the proliferation of mass market production and consumerism in the 60s and 70s, there is always a resurgence of textiles, craft and the handmade. An inevitable reaction which occurs in response to the escalation of technological manufacture, habitually causing the artists of the time to return to focus on detail and craftsmanship. This rejection of mass production has once more resurfaced as we make huge and rapid advances in modern technology, not to mention a particular global pandemic forcing the abandonment of many modes of tactility.

This red, leather tapestry explores the importance of the tactile, of skin and of craft-based practices in their task of opposing the ubiquity of digital technology.