Finally, I got to spend some time perusing over the work of Louise Riley. A reader sent me her link when they saw my waking with you piece and then I found out about Beware. Of course, I love Louise's work and enjoy how totally different her technique is then mine.
Louise finds discarded mattresses and turn them into gorgeous, detailed, often life size embroidered portraits. I would SO love to see this work in person. She tends to build up the thread in a very sculptural way. Additionally the mattresses seem to often be re-constructed in sculptural ways to create strange shapes and objects in the gallery.
Looking at her website this seems to be a somewhat new technique for her, working on this scale and with the object of the mattress. I would love to read a statement or here her discuss how she evolved from somewhat small scale works to these large works. And how the mattress works for her conceptually.
Often the figures are in positions that both suggest sleep or curled repose but also perhaps discomfort or pain. Strange how these 2 physical bodies can appear so similar.
I really love the above piece, a work that is embroidered onto a screen, making the figure appear as if floating in mid air. It seems like something one could really explore. I have never worked much on see though fabrics but this makes me want to give it a try. Maybe a thin muslin or something.
Louise builds her surface up by layering large stitches which creates a very painterly surface, in ways reminding me of artist Cayce Zavalagia.
Visit Louise's website to watch the evolution of her work over the last 5 years and hopefully we will see even more awesome evolution in the future.
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