Gradients of Guilt
Yes or No.
These are usually the two options we are brought up to believe we have. Right or wrong, good or evil, acceptable or not acceptable, black or white. The knowledge or conviction of what is right or wrong is constantly being applied to our daily lives, this has also become the norm for racism.
In this woven work I show people as woven strips. In the same way as the warp and weft of a material, everything we are and do is intertwined and connected. Each strand of yarn has importance and consequence. By weaving multiple single strips, all with a unique and different pattern I am representing individual people. Because these strips are self made just as our own lives,each strip has flaws and mistakes purposefully left in to emphasize their human-like qualities. To illustrate them as a collective I decided to make all strips the same length and width. The world-wide average height of both male and female combined is 1.64m x 10cm inspired by the width of woven Ashanti strips. All are tinted a slightly different grey, representing each individuals faults and wrongdoings. However from afar all strips appear identical, accentuating that we all are equal in our guilt. Each individual strip is then hand stitched together to the next with blood dyed yarn, symbolizing the blood, anger and pain we all share as a result of any form of racist onslaughts.
Each woven strip a person
Each person to his own
Each has mistakes
From afar all the same
All connected by the pain