From Spikeworld. | Spikeworld - The blog of Spike Dennis | Artist, Maker, Curator and Colloaborator
Kathy Halper’s Social Media Inspired Embroidery
Kathy Halper is a textile artist based in the United States. She finds source material for embroidered artworks through the internet, more specifically though social media networks like Facebook.
The content for Kathy’s embroidered drawings is sourced from status updates and photographs post online by teenagers. By embroidering these updates she gives these statuses and photographs a permanence that contrasts with the fleeting nature of online content which is constantly being updated, surpassed, rewritten.
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Having been creating embroidered artworks created from content sourced online for the last year or so I was instantly drawn to Kathy’s work (not to mention the reference to a unicorn in the image pictured above).
I like the simplicity of the embroidered drawings which are reduced to line drawings in many instances. In contrast I have been using cross stitch to create my own internet inspired artworks which creates an aesthetic more akin to a low resolution photograph than a drawing.
Similarly though, recreating this online material using a labour intensive physical process such as embroidery questions our experience of time and suggests that we might pause for thought and reflect on our actions before sharing our private thoughts and desires with the great big wide world.
Check out more of Kathy Halper’s work at: www.kathyhalper.com
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