Andrea Arts

“Carry It With You,” 57” x 77",” Quilted Linen

Andrea understands textiles as relational–relational in the sense that fabric is fundamentally concerned with the ways in which people and systems are connected. She thinks about how fabric creates links across time and space; an heirloom quilt passed down links mother to daughter to granddaughter, a sweater purchased from a thrift store binds strangers, an industrially produced pair of socks carries with it the knowledge and skills of a team of laborers: designers, farmers, factory workers. Whether we are aware of it or not, the textiles we interact with on a daily basis come from some thing and some place and are made by people.

Her practice is driven by a desire to forge connections between people and where their things come from. Making objects grounded in functionality, she wants to ask: how does a garment, a blanket, a pair of socks–a rag, even– carry meaning, and how is that meaning shaped or altered by our understanding of an object’s origin? Modern industry separates us from the material reality of the things we use and thus disconnects us from the inherent truth and beauty that functional objects carry. She hopes to create work that incites a user or viewer to think deeply about how they are situated in relation to the materials that they interact with.