Wool and Found Textiles, 12” x 12” x 11”, 2009

This one-of-kind sculpture features an antique, distressed doll-sized dress supported and shaped by a brown felt form underneath, alluding to the link between humans and other mammals with hair.

The ‘Pelt’ sculptures came about when I first became a parent; the intense and emotional drive to care for, feed, and protect my young felt deeply personal and yet common throughout the animal kingdom. The messy, uncontrollable, and immensely satisfying elements of being a mother brought home to me that for all my education, tool use, and language, I am essentially a mammal.

One hallmark of being a mammal is possessing hair—something humans routinely try to shape, deny, remove, and contain that persists nonetheless. In this work I combine found clothing items that carry their own layers of meaning with hair that intrudes on and reshapes them as a reassertion of the closeted mammal inside.