Lisa Alberts, Acute Onset no.7 (Pandemic Buildup)
Lisa Alberts (she/her)
Acute Onset no.7 (Pandemic Buildup), 2020
Linen, light sensitive dye, polyfil, dryer lint, thread
16x50x8 inches
I use alternative photography techniques to create textiles and soft sculpture that explore ideas of play and repetition and examine the space where anxiety and motherhood meet. Process is central to my work and my children are an inherent part of that process. The act of watching my kids playfully create a sunprint, the act of folding and unfolding fabric, the act of stitching and knotting, are physical representations of ideas I aim to explore in my work. Art and Motherhood are both the knowing and the unknowing, the creation and the healing of wounds, the isolation and the never-aloneness. I like to investigate the duality of this uncertainty amidst repetition.
In my Acute Onset series, I give my small children free rein to make large sunprints in my studio, which I then sew up and twist into tightly bound knots. These pieces explore the weight of anxiety and maternal depletion alongside the playfulness of childhood activities such as imagining, gathering, ordering, and archiving.