Craft the Leather (Summer 2024)
Crafting these three works in a collection feels like a form of worship—an art rooted in time, slow processes, understanding, practice, and care. The origins of leather draw my attention to the animal whose hide becomes mine to use. I ask, What is it to be the animal born to be harvested and consumed?
I consumed videos of cows’ behaviors, read about them, referennced technical illustrations to understand how their bodies function. From this, a love story emerged: a herder so awestruck by his wards that he begins to take on their likeness, using objects made from the materials these animals left behind.
In creating these objects, boots, a bag, and a whip, I have been intentional, using techniques that both embellish and serve a functional purpose. Humor weaves through these pieces, which focus on the feet, stomach, and tail. The feet, for the weight the animals once bore and how their hooves shape the ground they walk. The stomach for its strange power to turn grass into all we desire. And the tail, a corporeal tool often overlooked, used to swat away flies and protect the hide. My whip/swatter is a play upon the way in which we interact with and herd these animals. These investigations led me to design a particular silhouette for the boots, to inject cow bones into the boots’ heels and the whip/swatter handle, and to derive the bag forms from the physical characteristics of the cows’ stomach components.
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