This exhibition is all about distance and connection. Originally it was going to be about physically joining people together through crochet and movement; then the pandemic hit. As artist Elaine Bradford sat alone in her house day after day, she began to connect inanimate objects together as representations of these relationships she was missing in her life.
Some of the work was created before the lockdown. There are people connected to each other through crocheted masks. Embroidered vintage photographs show odd associations and awkward dinner parties. The newer work utilized her collection of thrift and antique store finds that surrounded Bradford as she was socially distanced inside her house. She transformed these discarded pieces of people’s lives by linking them together with crochet, embroidery and collage.
Bradford is interested in the nostalgia created through processes and objects. The connections made with yarn and thread become representations of relationships, both real and imagined. By using these extensions to connect bodies, she illustrates hopes, thoughts and fears that can bind people together, or tear them apart. These fibers are portrayals of being wrapped up in another person, and the distance or closeness that can be created between one another.
Elaine Bradford lives and works in Houston, TX. She holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (2003) and a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin (2000). Her work has been included in numerous shows both nationally and internationally. Bradford was one of the founding members of BOX 13 ArtSpace, an innovative artist-run studio and gallery space in Houston’s East End. She was a resident artist at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in 2010. In 2019 she completed a permanent public art commission that can be seen at the Heights HEB in Houston. Bradford is an Artist Fellow at the Sandhills Institute in Rushville, NE and will be working through the coming years to develop a project with the local community.
Elainebradford.com
@elainebradford_studio