Victoria Smits
Shared Inheritance, 2024
Hand-stitched textile made from wedding dress of artist’s second marriage, avocado-dyed cheesecloth, cotton thread, Pacific North- west Madrone, cochineal-dyed yarn (French knots mark each gesta- tional day of artist’s last pregnancy) 86” x 64”
Victoria Smits
A Softer You, 2024
Hand-stitched diminutive outlines of artist’s father’s tools made from avocado-dyed cheesecloth, cotton thread, used dryer-sheets (includes needle-nose pliers, c-clamp, adjustable pliers, hammer, needle-nose pliers with wire cutter, wrench, Phillips screwdriver, putty knife) various sizes
A Softer You is a collection of eight hand-stitched contours of my father's tools and is part of a larger body of work exploring the impacts of insecure attachment. The tools function as reinvented iconic symbols marking the initial imprint of insecure attachment and how understanding creates opportunities for transformation. While it is impossible to dissect the intricacies of my or anyone's attachment experience in a short explanation, my father's tools throughout childhood were a symbol of his attachment style: they were ordered in neat, classified rows on a pegboard in his workroom and when one disappeared or was out-of-place, he verbally and emotionally ruptured and created fear. These diminutive versions of my father's tools offer regeneration: what if these tools, symbolic of fear, were accessible? What if their identity were reinvented toward engagement and warmth?
Victoria Smits
Birthing and Estuary, detail, 2022
Artist's father’s tools, cochineal-dyed canvas and wool, cheesecloth, various textiles 10’ x 2.5'
Victoria Smits
Birthing an Estuary, 2022
Artist's father’s tools, cochineal-dyed canvas and wool, cheesecloth, various textiles 10’ x 2.5'
Victoria Smits
Sum of My Parts, detail, 2022
Wedding dress from second marriage, avocado-dyed cheesecloth, map of Civilization from youngest child, Nigerian fabric from fieldwork, linens from paternal grandmother, baby blanket from youngest child, artist's clothing 64" x 64"
Victoria Smits
Sum of My Parts, 2022
Wedding dress from second marriage, avocado-dyed cheesecloth, map of Civilization from youngest child, Nigerian fabric from fieldwork, linens from paternal grandmother, baby blanket from youngest child, artist's clothing 64" x 64"
(after workshop with artist, Coulter Fussell)
