Hunt Gallery: Friday, 24 August 2007
CECILLE R. HUNT GALLERY - Webster University
ELAINE BRADFORD
August 24 – September 21, 2007
Opening Reception: Friday, August 24, 2007 from 6pm - 8pm
Hours: 10am-4pm Monday through Friday or by appointment
In Elaine Bradford’s recent sculptural work she explores implications associated with the handmade. Her sculptures suggest an enthusiastic hobbyist, pairing carefully crafted sweaters, meticulously constructed of yarn, with taxidermied animal heads. The works are homey in their conception, and are both warm and blank, sad and amusing while displaying a labor-intensive craft that teeters on the edge of absurdity. Exploring how each could live in a domestic setting, she works to conceal and reveal these forms simultaneously by pairing peculiar moments with
familiar surroundings. The combination of materials and her imagery blend masculine and feminine associations, highlighting the social commentary inherent in her production as they both come from a world of home craft, leisure activity and sport ultimately infusing these everyday objects with a surreal comfortability. The act of making sweaters brings to mind hours of labor, she is particularly interested in referencing something that is unwanted and unneeded, with concepts of comfort and warmth. Her work evokes traditionally feminine pursuits such as quilting, yet her imagery would most readily invoke unsettling masculinity. Using crochet, Bradford has also made sweaters for items including trees and vacuum cleaners. Utilizing familiar items and referencing the domestic, she introduces the viewer to an uncanny reality that is strange but equally morbid and pathetic but also brings them new life and altering the way we view these truncated forms.
ELAINE BRADFORD
August 24 – September 21, 2007
Opening Reception: Friday, August 24, 2007 from 6pm - 8pm
Hours: 10am-4pm Monday through Friday or by appointment
In Elaine Bradford’s recent sculptural work she explores implications associated with the handmade. Her sculptures suggest an enthusiastic hobbyist, pairing carefully crafted sweaters, meticulously constructed of yarn, with taxidermied animal heads. The works are homey in their conception, and are both warm and blank, sad and amusing while displaying a labor-intensive craft that teeters on the edge of absurdity. Exploring how each could live in a domestic setting, she works to conceal and reveal these forms simultaneously by pairing peculiar moments with
familiar surroundings. The combination of materials and her imagery blend masculine and feminine associations, highlighting the social commentary inherent in her production as they both come from a world of home craft, leisure activity and sport ultimately infusing these everyday objects with a surreal comfortability. The act of making sweaters brings to mind hours of labor, she is particularly interested in referencing something that is unwanted and unneeded, with concepts of comfort and warmth. Her work evokes traditionally feminine pursuits such as quilting, yet her imagery would most readily invoke unsettling masculinity. Using crochet, Bradford has also made sweaters for items including trees and vacuum cleaners. Utilizing familiar items and referencing the domestic, she introduces the viewer to an uncanny reality that is strange but equally morbid and pathetic but also brings them new life and altering the way we view these truncated forms.
Cecille R. Hunt Gallery
8342 Big Bend Blvd.
St. Louis MO 63119
8342 Big Bend Blvd.
St. Louis MO 63119
posted by Bill Barrett at 1:01 PM
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