One Man’s Trash

(found textile on hook rug canvas)

 

For the past year, I have found myself becoming a trash collector; intrigued by what is commonly discarded and in what ways. Fixated on the phrase “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.

 

The genesis of this artistic exploration began by looking at the cluttered streets of Boston suburbs. I became aware of the complicated connections we have to material. Material holds meaning and memory, therefore, there is something significant about treating it with dignity. By creating this fiber art, I had the opportunity to pay homage to previously discarded material and give a new life to the “trash,” creating functional art.

 

Fiber art is a medium I have begun to settle into and explore as an artist. Connecting with its innate freedom of form and texture, it has yielded spontaneous and intuitive art making. This manner of art making is visceral: tearing the material, exploring the texture and characteristics of the textile against my flesh, forming calyces on my fingers from knotting into individual squares on the hook rug canvas, and burning shoulders from spending hours at a time hunched over the art. I found being intertwined within the medium therapeutic.

 

Due to the therapeutic nature of this process, representation of mood through color and texture emerged from each piece. Unexpectedly, this creative process took place during uncertain times and a period of quarantine. Because of this, the art making process became essential to my sanity as we all experienced a world separated by six feet.

 

Elyse Fiorentino