Altered Blanket Series (2018-19)
This series of works began with another series I created in the same year, called Nine Patch Series. This series compiles hundreds of tightly-cropped selfies that were taken underneath crocheted blankets, which cast intricate patterns of light and shadow to simultaneously reveal and conceal my body. Those photos were then digitally assembled into traditional and non-traditional quilting patterns, and in the case of these altered blankets, custom printed onto soft blankets with a fleece backing. Most of the blankets in this series were further altered through cutting, sewing, layering, and weaving additional fabric and materials into them.
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Lips
Lips utilizes a custom-printed, mass-produced blanket that I repeatedly slit, peeled back, and pinned into place. The resulting colorful ‘lips’ that appear against the white underside of the blanket alludes to the hyper-sexualization and commodification of women’s bodies, and the saturation of this imagery in digital media and advertising industries.
Lashes
Lashes utilizes a mass-produced blanket that was custom-printed with an intimate photo-collage of my own selfies in a checkerboard pattern. Soft red and pink fabrics, decorative textile scraps, and single-use beauty products designed to temporarily ‘enhance’ women’s bodies are built up around this pattern. Lashes aims to critique the absurd cultural canons of beauty and femininity in the US, and the cycles of consumption and waste that fuel those industries.
Earlier works
These images represent earlier works in this series, some of which were included in exhibitions, and others that have never been shown. All the works in this section were created between 2017-2019.
Press
Two works from this series were reviewed while on view in a group show in 2017.
Written by John Anderson for Washington City Paper
Written by John Anderson for Washington City Paper
