Kelly Hickey
Tender, 2021
textile waste, vintage buttons, garden rake 50"x17"x3"
'Tender' is reflective of work and wear. Made up of a fabricated metal garden rake that is traditionally used to comb the earth and create a workable consistency I have combined it with handmade material collaged "string" that is torn and reworked to become refined for future use. The viewer is invited to pick up the string and imagining endless possibilities reassemble it on the rake thereby tending the creation.
Kelly Hickey
Portal, 2022
discarded textiles, embroidery floss, screen, window frame 40"x15"x1.75"
Physical portals as doorways or entrances can be imposing but framed as portals of knowledge such as libraries or art pieces these passage ways can be inviting and imaginative, transporting those who wander through into a new dimension or scared space of learning. My marks within 'Portal' are both random and intentional sometimes lining up pieces as a woven warp and weft and at other times a flurry of collaged random chaos as my mind wanders through a wave of thoughts. The incorporated fiberglass screen brings to mind the sieve of the human mind and the path ideas and thoughts take as they flow in and out. As viewers take in the discarded pieces of 'Portal' my hope is their imagination is sparked and ideas of material transformation and innovation begin to ignite reinvention.
Kelly Hickey
reGreta, 2021
textile waste, nails, plywood, aerosol paint 22"x15"
In 2021 at the Youth4Climate summit in Milan, Italy, activist Greta Thunberg addressed the so-called World Leaders as being all talk and no action. Thunberg's take on the state of the World's climate and environment leadership was one of empty promises and all "blah, blah, blah". This artwork encompasses a collage of textiles and wood scrap headed for landfill and reassembled in a protest style billboard highlighting Greta Thunberg's keen observation.
