Floating Gardens
Canadian artist Amanda McCavour is one of 20 artists shortlisted for the Young Masters Art Prize, on show at La Galleria in central London from 30 September. Amanda uses a sewing machine to create thread drawings and delicately crafted, immersive installations inspired by floral motifs found in historical botanical embroideries and drawings.
Amanda is interested in thread’s assumed vulnerability, its ability to unravel, and its strength when it is sewn together. By sewing into fabric that dissolves in water, she can build up stitched lines on a temporary surface. The crossing threads create strength so that when the fabric is dissolved, the thread drawing can hold together without a base. With only the thread remaining, these images appear as though they would be easily unravelled and seemingly on the verge of falling apart, despite the works ravelled strength.
Through an exploration of line and its 2D and 3D implications, stitch is used in her artwork to explore various concepts such as connections to home, the fibres of the body and more formal considerations of thread’s accumulative presence. Amanda’s work explores embroidery’s duality, it’s subtle quality versus its ultimate power.
Amanda’s installations are formed from the accumulation of small pieces by the hundreds and thousands. This process of repetition links her work to patterns in both surface design as well as fractal geometries. These pieces are then installed in spaces hanging from the ceiling. The pieces, hung from individual threads, shift with the movement of air.
McCavour has received awards and scholarships from the Ontario Crafts Council, The Handweavers and Spinners Guild of America, The Ontario Crafts Council, The Ontario Society of Artists, The Surface Design Association and The Embroiderers Guild of America for her work.
Visit Young Master Art Prize 2019 for more information about the exhibition. The winner will be announced on 1st October.