RESEARCH STATEMENT
I started this project wanting to study how I exist within art. I studied how my practice touches my identity. There was a gravitational pull towards my identity as a lesbian, even if it was not something I have ever put much emphasis on. As well as an artist, I am a knitter, a hair stylist, and a lesbian. I have learnt that maybe these 4 things are more linked than I originally thought.
I needed to test my hypothesis by seeing if I was the only one that felt this way. I started conducting research interviewing lesbians that tied their identity to fibres, whether that be the ones on their head or ones they use to create. These people had the same strings intertwined that I had. Tangled up in their identity, the link started to emerge.
What was the science behind this? I read studies about hair and lesbians, lesbians and fibre crafts, fibre crafts and hair. Historical and contemporary sources all agree with this invisible link. Art pulls at the end of the string and starts untangling. Sarah Joy Ford, LJ Roberts, Celia Pym, they all are knots tying the web together.
As I learn and respond, it feels natural to create a being that visualises these things. A me that is a symbol of everything I have learnt. I sunk hours repetitively jabbing with the needles to create her flesh. Eventually, she is alive, and it the thread is laid out straight.
I wove these stories together to create a narrative that I hope like the artists mentioned’s work will be able to be a source of information and make people feel represented, so they can take comfort in their identity. I have mended myself and hope to mend the people around me in the process. I have concluded this project by adapting into my final form of an Alpaca-Liv hybrid.