I feel for the excluded, ignored, and even abandoned things. Our eyes are constantly scanning through hundreds of thousands of images each day, trying to locate what provokes emotion so we feel touched: novelty, amusement, inspiration, or even sadness. Our mind is trained to look for the essence and filter through the noise. I want to make work that explores the idea of substance versus futility. I am curious about the mechanism of human perception and how sensation and meaning are derived from it.
While I have always been an observational painter, working from life models and the natural world, my 2017 work is more about material: playing with collage, printmaking, sculpture, installation, and performance. The concept of my practice always reflects “here and now.” Engaging with the local craft communities in Canada and Italy, my interest has moved towards the mundane. And so it feels natural to start paying attention to leather in Florence.
The leather banana peels are products of my daily routine; I eat one banana each day in my studio here; with each banana peel, I trace the shape on a piece of leather, cut the shape, and use fabric paint to color the inside and outside surface of the leather according to my observation of each peel’s natural color and texture. Once the banana is peeled, the skin starts to age, and I need to scan it immediately to obtain documentation of each peel. The painted leather (a flat banana map) is heated approximately 40 degrees to bind the fabric paint to the leather surface. The next step is to glue and make the flat leather 3-dimensional using wire to wrap around it on a small bottle. The leather is a plastic material: after the wire is unwrapped from the leather banana skin, it will hold the shape for a long time before it slowly reverts to its flat form. Finally, these hand-made banana skins will be stamped with “Florence, Genuine Leather, made in Italy” with a 200lbs press to the surface; the stamp permanently breaks the structure of the fiber, leaving a lasting impression.
