Dayna Talbot
The Hands of Time, 2024-2025
Hand Casts, Silk threads, Various Fibers Right hand 7" x 5" x 3.75" Left hand 10" x 5.5" x 3.75"
A memory of my hands and how they have changes over time.
Dayna Talbot
The Chaos in My Mind, 2025
Wool, Silk, Various fibers Variable
Ritual and repetition guide my creative process, serving as an investigation of the beauty found within imperfection and impermanence. I employ humble materials such as thread, wool, felted fibers, and handmade paper, once considered mundane, to craft pieces that blur the line between fine art and craft. Utilizing techniques such as wrapping, tying, stitching, and manipulation, I create forms that evoke both familiarity and ambiguity.
Dayna Talbot
The Power of Remembrance, 2020
Silk, flax, wire, wool, various other fibers Variable/Installation
I was a flight attendant for United Airlines on my way to Boston for a medical procedure when I heard the news of the planes hitting the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. I lost 35 friends and colleagues that day. The Power of Remembrance project began three years later when United offered employees a company-wide leave of absence and I enrolled in a BFA program. Not fully realizing it, I had begun a 20-year project of unraveling and documenting my 9/11 grief and trauma. I began working with structures and fibers in graduate school at Lesley University. This installation brings full circle my aesthetic response to the tragic attacks on 9/11. It was during grad school that art became my form of meditation, I honor my colleagues and all the victims by creating these totemic forms. The four columns stand for the two United and two American Airlines planes. The columns are composed of 3,000 pieces of shredded and rewoven silk, each unique strand honoring one of the individuals who died in 9/11. Additionally, 35 handmade felted vessels hold 35 souls, one for each of the United and American Airlines employees who also died that day. The vessels were made to my specifications by me and several collaborating SDA artists contributed vessels. The installation memorializes them by recreating a unity of body and spirit. It provides the viewer with a place to reflect on this national catastrophe and to mourn in tranquility and peace.
