Louise Keen

As an artist I use recycled materials as a means to create visual and visceral experiences for myself and others. My art practice considers all types of fiber, as well as rubbish or trash, as a potential medium for art, and the rich cultural associations of simple actions and 'do-it-yourself' art making.

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In The 'Do-it-yourself' Artwork: Participation from Fluxus to New Media, editor Anna Dezeuze suggests that the dynamics between order and disorder, control and play and organisation and risk, lie at the heart of D.I.Y artwork as an experimental practice. Dezeuze also goes on to state that "D.I.Y can serve as a catalyst for change, through self-consciousness and self-transformation, or through social interactions and exchanges.” 

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Through my DIY experimental practice, I endeavour to re-create a relationship with my past, present and environment.  As a child, I watched my grandmother sew garments for my sisters and I. The process captivated me. It was like a dance between thread, machine and fabric. It was magical. In my works I try to incorporate the magic of this dance by blending machine and hand stitching with found and gathered 'waste' materials.

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Flattening, overlapping planes, layering and utilising the transparent properties of the materials allows traces of my prior activity to be visual. I use thread purposefully to draw, to attach and sew the pieces together; making in a way that is both creative and performative and using the process as a playful metaphysical link to the disconnection I sometimes feel as a consumer within the globalised world.

 

In an attempt to redress the materiality and value of the discarded, I create new paths of connection, while using stitch as a communicative language to enhance the non-verbal interaction.

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Sewing as a visual language has long been used by people to communicate something about themselves, their history, beliefs and protests. Through the process of art making I have become aware that self emerges, and states of anxiety can become a catalyst for change and transformation. I use my studio practice and making as a form of meditation on life.