2022 — Shelley Spangler

2022

‘Kitchen’ series, lithographs, chine collé, 38 x 28 cm.
October 2022.

‘OPEN’ animated loop.
June 2022.

To view animation click on image below:

‘Rituals’ marker wall drawing, pen on paper 15 x 14 cm (3), 124 x 46 cm.
June 2022.

‘Hand me down’ hard ground print with red ink, 22.5 x 15 cm.
June 2022.

‘Hand me down’ is a 22.5 x 15 cm hardground red ink print on 38 x 28 cm Somerset paper. The print depicts a jumper that my grandmother knitted for my father that I now wear. I’ve come to view family keep sakes in a new light due to our family’s proximity to Alzheimer’s and its effects. When looking at the jumper I now notice its interlocking threads and consider memory’s physical form. Similarly, the interlocking pathways of the brain and how they can become eroded. Turning the jumper into a print is a way of preserving its memory and the memories attached to it. This continuity and lineage are also felt in the art forms of knitting and print making present in the work. Two mediums that have been practiced and not changed significantly for centuries. The time, labour and attention to detail required in both mediums convey the intimate care found in handmade keep sakes. The red ink creates a warm inviting feeling as well as conveying in a more literal sense the blood lines of family and the organic nature of memory. The work’s title ‘Hand me down’ also speaks to the fear of the continuing presence of Alzheimer’s in our family’s future. The repetitive texture of the jumper and infinity loop like design running across it has a likeness to the knots motifs I use throughout my practice. The jumper is as if one of these knots were tightened and organised. Or alternatively if the jumper were to be unravelled to form a knot, just as the pathways in the brain can become unravelled and tangled.