Vigilant
2002
hand latch-hooked yarn on canvas
120"H x 204"W,
installation dimensions variable
Vigilant is a series of hand latch-hooked wall sculptures. Each sculpture displays a colorful and simplified rendering of a microorganism including E.coli, Salmonella, Anthrax, Botulism, Ebola, and Smallpox. Latch hooking is a simple but time-consuming craft that has traditionally been used to depict idealized and romanticized images from domesticity and nature. The juxtaposition of the images and the process creates a tension between the sweetness of the craft and the anxiety evoked by organisms of bio-terrorism and household biohazards.
Exhibition Views
Limn Art Gallery
Wignall Museum
Reviews
"...circular hook rugs are the premiere visual in the show, and while the 11 shaggy mats... might recall some whimsical thing your sister (like mine) made when you were growing up, be careful where you wipe your feet; these rugs, filled with brightly-colored rods and circles are actually petri dishes, each one filled with cells that cause or create anthrax, botulism (also the main ingredient for Botox), E. coli, the Ebola virus, Smallpox and Salmonella. They are at once beautiful and brilliant..." (Davies, Inland Empire Weekly, 2009)
From Top Left:
Smallpox, Salmonella, E.coli
Ebola, Botulism, Anthrax
