What She Brings With Her to the Land
Woman with her Head in the Clouds, 2021
Wrapped in one of the Women’s Work Blankets, a woman stands in the wind on the barrens in Grates Cove, Newfoundland. She is warmed and protected by the work of other women – present through their old aprons – bringing domestic labour and culture into a wild place. This work in the field was undertaken in 2021… a research practice… an experiment with the performativity of objects made to perform from performative materials.
Blankets made from aprons – working objects intended to work. The 2021 journey to Grates Cove was the first opportunity to bring those old echoes into the landscape – simple work, constant work, work that nurtured, work that sheltered and work that warmed. These small interventions began what has continued to be three long and continuing conversations about What She Brings With Her to the Land. In 2024, the artist returned to Grates Cove for an extended period of site-specific work , using the Women’s Work Blankets to explore often-invisible contributions to the land by women who use their labour to make shelter and kin, make culture and space and place for play.
Making Work for Warmth – Blankets on the Barrens, Grates Cove, 2024
Making Shelter – Making Kin, Grates Cove, 2024
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- Making Shelter, Grates Cove, NL, 2024
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- Making Kin with Family
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- Making Family with Terrence, Courtney and Phee
Making Play – Inside A Blanket Fort, St. John’s, 2024
While wrapped in a Work Blanket out on the barrens, one of my models, Phee, took some photos from inside her blanket. They so inspired me, that many weeks later I walked outdoors on a sunny day in the city and wrapped myself. The comfort was immediate and immense – calling me back to those sweet and secret moments in blanket forts as a child. There IS a reason these are called Memory Blankets! Thanks Phee!
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- From Inside the Blanket Fort, St. John’s, 2024
Excerpts from What She Brings With Her to the Land, Grates Cove, 2024.
The Memory Blanket site-work will continue at other sites and with new collaborators but I am deeply grateful to Tanea Hynes for her help in 2021, and to Terrence, Courtney and Phee, for their help in both 2021 and 2024. I am also grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts and Arts NL for their support of this work.