Hand-embroidered replica of found plastic bag. Embroidered on organza fabric. Sculpture Double-sided

Shannyn Reid

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In my practice, I am interested in what is lost and found: the discarded remnants and belongings of strangers that sit upon the precipice of what can be both important and unimportant. Working from compiled, collected, and discarded objects, I strive to collect instances of lost relevance. Items like shopping lists and plastic bags that sit in a liminal space between necessary and useless. By recreating each object, I am interested in preserving and re-presenting the mundanity of the everyday, calling attention to its forgotten significance. Translating each found item into textiles I alter their medium and texture, creating an opportunity for the viewer to question the obscurity of the object in front of them; an unfamiliar familiar object. I employ textiles in my practice due to their tactile nature and history of domesticity and functionality in the home. I use fabric as it holds mark and form, it can rip and tear, and exists in a similar yet different space as the paper and plastic objects I re-create. There is a playfulness that exists with textiles as soft sculptures, and I encourage the audience to connect, touch and spend time with the lists. We buy, we use, we re-use, we run out; then we make lists to use and discard. We drop our plastic bag and it takes flight in the wind; not worth chasing. To remember to forget. To lose and to find.