Using an alias to obscure the artist whose past saw their artistic skills develop through grafitti art, let me introduce the work of Nova Scotia artist 'From the Edge of the Pit'. Their work has evolved into textile works and collages that repurpose garments and fabrics that would be otherwise landfill bound. Using Japanese mending techniques such as Boro and Sashiko, the artist turns clothes that would be considered at the end of their life into intricately decorated fashion statements through the deliberate addition of patches, heavy stitching and layers of textiles.
The chosen fabrics are often those you may see on construction sites, a nod to the artists employment background and their aim to place art where it is often not seen or expected. This wearable type of work can be seen in his piece Collage Pants #4 which accompanies Jean Bergeron's collage works in the exhibition 'This Time Last Year' being shown at Cuts and Paste Gallery until December 8th.
Although the artist aims to create wearable art that could be found in environments one would not typically expect to find artworks, they are also capable and adept at creating 2D art to be hung in a traditional way. For the exhibition, four collages on paper that includes textile scraps from the wearable art pile have been combined into one very inspired piece entitled 'Four Studies of State of Mind'. These four works include the artists own drawings, collage, textile and oil paint.
The artist is mindful of the fabrics they use. In fact, some of the scraps and pieces found in the works on display started as patches for other works last year. Each piece of fabric carefully chosen to add strength or cover broken stitches that may be cause for the clothing to be trashed.
This time last year some of these scraps were being used in a different way and this year they have been combined to create a new artistic whole. In a society that has fallen in love with fast fashion, From the Edge fo the Pit slows us down and proves that reuse and repurposing is worthy of celebration.
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