Cultivating the Craft
   

A series of five sculptural panels installed as a theatrical stage of disparate images, representing the tedium of any skilled craft. The tools of a craft become prosthetic devices that embody desires within the body. Their form, as representation, is embedded within the fragility of sculptural surface. Opticality here, hinges on associations between psychic and somatic accumulations. Light becomes a metaphor that reveals the drama behind ‘work’- an in-between membrane that produces meanings from dark, obscure zones towards clarity and meaning. Intimacy and immediacy are conveyed through the fragile textural surface of kantha quilting. Its repetitive yet simple technique easily draws the non-skilled, semi-skilled or untrained into fine craftsmanship. 
[in 5 parts]  Dimensions: 5' x 8' x 1" (approx) each
Media: quilting, hand embroidery on Calico Cotton and other fabrics; various sewing tools embedded, suspended on wooden beam.
Needs strong back lighting source to reveal the work.
Year: 2013