Contemporary life often seems to be overfull of situations and circumstances that, despite our having little control over them, shape the way we conduct our day and our lives. Whether these are political or bureaucratic decisions, work situations, health issues, ‘acts of God’, accident, family circumstances, or just plain ‘life’, their affect can be profound and we have to deal with them (well or otherwise). Their affects can be devastating (or seemingly so), they can seem insurmountable, they can bring us to tears, and they can make us laugh.
The idea for this series of work was built from a felted ‘hat’ (What’s a Girl to Do?? – Less is Less) created for the In the Red group exhibition which commented on the affects of cut backs in government funding for arts organizations on artists. These hand felted hats are designed not to be worn on the head but to explore many of those life issues that affect the headspace of this artist during a particularly difficult period dealing with a chronic illness and it’s collateral affects. It is, in a way a memoir explored with drama and humour and by pushing the structural potential of felt as a sculptural medium. Individual themes include issues of balance, work stress, keeping the magic, dealing with weather, keeping up appearances, and the relationships between ‘less’ and ‘more’. Underlying the work is the notion that it is ‘ok’ to laugh at ourselves and our circumstances, and it is also ‘ok’ to laugh in a gallery, with or at the art.
