Intro

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hi i’m elena i’m here at the 50 50 arts

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collective

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on douglas street in victoria

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and this is a part of my show

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called why do i love the water which i

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did in collaboration with the

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bonnie mccomb cry residency

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which i attended in the spring so this

Art Talk

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piece

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um the paintings anyway i did at the

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residency

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in march and it was my first month i

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spent the whole month painting these

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and just taking a lot of time

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and thinking about stuff and i actually

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had never made a painting before

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before then and they had some paint and

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so it was really meditative

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and it became something that i i became

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really attached to at the end

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i see it as water like we put it on the

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floor

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as water and i love the way it moves as

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you move towards it

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because of all the dots there’s like a

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little bit of an optical illusion

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um effect i guess

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and yeah i just i i love water for

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the space that it gives like it it can

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hold you

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up like it supports you but it’s also so

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powerful like it holds so much within it

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other than us so like if

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for me it’s like a space that yeah that

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provides me space

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um to relax but also

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to think and have quiet um and a bit of

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reflecting

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so yeah um and this one on the side i

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actually made

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a long time ago and i didn’t realize how

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much it fit into the show until like the

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week before

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this is called a haunted and it’s a

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japanese

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work coat so it has short sleeves so

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that your hands are free and it’s warm

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and this is a child’s one and i screen

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printed on the inside

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during my undergrad a little house

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um yeah and i’m i’m part japanese so

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japanese imagery and learning about

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japan has been a big part of my

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art practice for the last like four

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years now and

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yeah connecting to the clothing and the

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textile history of japan has been really

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great to meld with the rest of my

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work this is another hunt and actually

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that i pieced together from recycled

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kimonos that i had dyed

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so each little square like i cut them

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all up and sewed them all back together

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which is a pretty meditative process in

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and of itself

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and then this one on the bottom is a log

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cabin quilt block that i made

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with hand-dyed materials as well and i

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kind of

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changed it it used to be a long skinny

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12 foot long sculpture but for this

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piece i

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i changed the format of it and put a

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sleeping bag inside of it

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for the stuffing and was thinking about

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weight

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and weighted blankets and like

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self-soothing and

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sleep um so it all kind of fit together

Making a Pillow

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so today um

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i was going to make a little pillow for

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one of these objects here

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because in my show i have a bunch of

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pillows that i wanted to make for some

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rocks

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as kind of a caretaking action

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and just like a nice like soft gesture

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um so here are some objects that i

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brought from home

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it’s like small tv i don’t know where it

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came from it’s been around for a while

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i have this little chest which i

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actually have

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zero clue where i got this but i can’t

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remember not having it and

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inside always looks like a little

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shark’s tooth

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don’t know where that came from either

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but i’ve never lost it

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this is a newer edition it’s my seed

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bird

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it’s very important it’s a bird made out

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of two seeds which i bought in japan

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um and a rock for good measure

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so to make a pillow basically

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you just need anything to stuff it this

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is part of a

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mattress protector which i just cut up

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and recycled because it’s going to get

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thrown away

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so i like to recycle things as much as

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possible

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and this is some fabric that i dyed a

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long time ago

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which i just made into a little square

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pillow you could also use something

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that’s been quilted like quilt piece i

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have

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like an example here of some quilt

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piecing that i’ve done

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or you could use some old clothes or

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whatever you want really

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so to stuff this i’m just going to

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roll it up

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and get it into all the corners as much

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as possible

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and then the most difficult part like

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you can sew up the sides any way you

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want obviously

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i did it on machine we could do it by

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hand too this is the most

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difficult part i guess is sewing an

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invisible seam

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on the on the edge there so

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so i’ll just cut some thread

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entire knot

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and you want to tuck the needle

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underneath

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nope tie a bigger knot i guess

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okay so you

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put the needle in

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like that like right beside it but on

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the other side of the seam

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and then you poke it back out i don’t

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know a millimeter later

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and then you do the same thing the other

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side

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and this is just and it’s just going to

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disappear

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a little bit magically

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okay and so when you’re at the end just

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throw a little stitch in there

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wrap the the thread around the needle

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and pull it through

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and that’ll make a little knot

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and then you just want to bury it

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poke it in and then take it out wherever

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and cut it and that’ll bury your thread

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so now you have a pillowcase that’s

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covered and

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closed and for me the most enchanting

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part of these pillows is um

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where they have little dips in them i

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think it’s called couching like in a

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couch sometimes they’ll have these like

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buttons in it

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you know and there’s like these curves

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that are made because of that

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so i always tie my quilts or my

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quilted sculptures off with these kinds

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of couching stitches

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so i have some contrasting thread for

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that

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and this is super easy you could do it

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on the machine

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like a traditional quilt or

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you could do it in a pattern

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i usually just make little dots

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so you just poke through

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and you have both sides on the same

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and when an ambulance isn’t going by

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so when you have both sides of the

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thread on the same side

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you tie a knot

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just like pull it tight tie a little

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knot

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tie it a few times

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and then trim it

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so there you go

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so now you just have to decide who gets

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to lay on the pillow i guess

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you have a little rock pillow or

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or a combination make a little seam

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yep that’s basically it this is a small

My Life in Rocks

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piece that’s just called my life in

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rocks

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i’ve been collecting rocks for a long

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time and i

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yeah i probably will forever i guess so

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they start from when i was really little

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and i remember buying this one at um

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a little like a little hippie shop where

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my grandparents used to live

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and this one is um it’s not technically

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a rock but

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i picked it up off the ground at the

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driving

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the place where my dad learned to drive

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in malaysia

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this is a little volcanic rock from jeju

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island in korea

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or i visited there in 2018

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the one on the far end here i got more

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recently in

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on galliano island when i was visiting

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there

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and the last one is attached to

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my air mattress which was another piece

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that i made during my residency

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it was the second month i spent the

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second month making this one

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and it’s um like 60

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little inflatable pillows that i tied

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together

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um and floated out on the ocean

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in ross bay and so yeah mattresses have

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been a big theme in my work for a while

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um but because they’re so bulky i

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started to i started to

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try to come up with ways of making them

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without having to stuff them and have

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them take up a lot of space

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yeah so that’s the latest iteration of

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that and there’s a video of it as well

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floating out in the water which is quite

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nice

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and coincidentally actually also put

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rocks in the mattress so

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it didn’t sink it managed to stay afloat

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might be a little bit dark but there’s

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i think 11 quilted pillows

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or mini futon mattresses is what i

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called them when i made them

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they all have flying geese pattern which

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is was symbolic to me at the time like

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cyclical knowledge and

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generational knowledge as well so i

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kind of reimagined them for this piece

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with

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the water theme and the rocks and

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i love how they’re modular so i can kind

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of change how they

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look each time for each show

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and they go with the video of the air

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mattress as well

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um the show is going to be on until the

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29th of july

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there’s lots to see fibers painting

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printmaking and some video so i hope you

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come see it

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you

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