Artwork title : Madman and Sleeze: Eden Dream

Embroidered by hand. 290 x 180cm 

Using my protagonists; Madman and Sleeze, I narrate a stories. ‘Eden Dream’ depicts a tale of journey undertaken by Madman in his search for Eden and the Sun, and his encounters along the way. 

One is forced to spend a great deal of time with a piece when embroidering by hand. The tediousness can grow to become challenging, but this allows for the focus of the work to shift to process, rather than making in order to have a final piece, so to resolve an initial idea. I think in terms of creating an artefact of a process rather than an artefact of an idea, thinking in a ritualistic rather than artistic manner.

I intentionally chose hand embroidery here as it is incredibly tactile, my hand is in constant connection with the piece, and the action of piercing the fabric feels as if I am imbedding the work with my intentions and energy of the stories being depicted. I believe they will always possess this energy. 

The imagery is portrayed with a single colour of thread. This vein like hue, subtly flesh toned and is muted enough for the figures to speak without distraction, like how words exist on this page. It allows for the sense of time to be ambiguous, perhaps a relic of an old world or foretelling of new one. 

This process and frame of mind allows me to build a relationship with my characters, through this, their tales and environment I am growing to understand. When I am embroidering it feels that with time, they are revealing their lives to me, this allows me to overcome the highly repetitive and monotonous nature of embroidering by hand.