so call me & i’ll tell you

So call me and I’ll tell you, 2023-2024
2026
handknitted tapestry

I was told I can’t speak about them, for fear of further action.
But art has the power to speak in ways that you can’t.

This work, while directly inspired by my own experiences, is about the structural issues and barriers that artists and artsworkers continue to face in an industry that mistreats us, and regards us as disposable and expendable. This work is shaped by the hypocrisies that are enabled in spaces where “community” and “care” are aesthetic gestures, rather than embodied values of relating to one another. This work is about my recognition over the past three years that when all of us are working overtime for an exploitative sector, with a structural lack of growth opportunities and lack of support, that is where it is easiest to fail in our duty of care to each other.

This work is also about the ways that we perform as artists and artworkers, and the terms we must accept to sustain a ‘career’. Where professional guises and over-subscription to risk aversion (perceived or otherwise) and a scarcity mindset justifies a culture of silencing and harm. In an arts industry that models itself after best practice and ethics, the gap between words and practice is even more pronounced. In our current hyper-vigilant landscape, where artists and artsworkers are facing increasing censorship or practicing self-censoring, this attitude has become even more amplified.

This work is about me, but it might be about you too.