By a Thread Statement
By A Thread
Nights consumed by thoughts… pendulous between hesitation and hope… Questioning. In the face of darkness and uncertainty, how do we choose to step into the light?
The isolating experience of a global pandemic upended my relationship with space, time, and community. Feelings of isolation evolved into solitary sanctuary – a residence of self-exploration and reflection. Then, in the midst of variants and opposing viewpoints, being told to lay down my masks and reveal myself to the outside world as we all step into the revised normal.
Regulations intended to guide and protect us have highlighted the significant moral and political divisions that cut through our social worlds — how do we heal? The ever-evolving reactivity and adjustments to our daily life and the trepidation of shifting towards the new were the inspirations and catalysts for this body of work entitled By A Thread.
By a Thread is a response to the uncertainty of transition, deconstructing the feelings that arise in response to tightening and loosening of rules. It reflects on humanities need for order in the face of disorder, and the sense of uncertainty as one navigates those conflicting impulses within oneself and our society. Oft-maligned, moths evoke a sense or rebirth and regeneration, with an innate pull towards liberation through their symbolic and transformative beauty. After such a prolonged period of blackout, we too are called to leave the haven of our cocooned worlds behind as we are drawn instinctively to the dawn and hope it brings, promise that until now been just beyond reach.
Conceived in the fall of 2020 in the midst of Covid, Vancouver’s lower mainland was besieged with what many ironically called a “moth outbreak”, By a Thread evolved in the months and year following, finally completed in synchronicity with the easing of pandemic mandates. In keeping with earlier series, the imagery of By a Thread expresses a shared experience through visual metaphors. Semi-transparent moths are delicately suspended as taut, artificial threads delineate rules and safety orders, a gesture towards the insecurity of our own tenuous relationship with the future. Haphazard strings intersect, disrupting the certainty of our path and signifying discord. Silk threads illustrating a natural arrhythmia that complicates the emerging present.
As with the luminescence of the moths’ wings against the backdrop of negative space we too have within ourselves the capacity to take flight and move forth.