Lost and Found

Author/Artist Name

Kayla ChinnFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Senior

Date of Creation

Fall 2021

Artist Statement

We often do not value moments until they become memories or we do not value memories that come from difficult moments. Within Lost and Found, I explore how we lose, gain, or fabricate memories to protect ourselves from traumatic events. My constructions present these difficult experiences through the comfort of repurposed objects and handmade soft sculptures. Both of these artistic processes have become a way for me to cope with the loss of many loved ones. The women I have lost used sewing to help others feel comfortable in their own homes, to make the discomforts comfortable. The discomforts being negative experiences that impacted my family, loss of a loved one, financial struggle, emotional disconnection, and more. Through the act of building a living space and filling it with organic stuffed pieces, I commemorate the work the strong women from my family did to help others when they fell on hard times, creating comforting memories with their quilts, homemade toys, and homey charm.

My found object assemblages and soft sculptures also mimic how memories are formed, we subsciously pick and choose what we remember, which is the same nature I used when creating these works. My works reclaim objects others have discarded much like Joseph Cornell’s assemblages, I want my objects to spark the memories of others as they seem them both individually and in relation to one another. The collection of found objects to represent the memories we forget being a representation of this mentality. The use of soft sculpture comes from a place of struggle with personal discomforts. Experiencing these events that are universal such as; loss of a loved one, financial struggle, and emotional turmoil and presenting them in a similar way that helped my family cope with them.

Within Lost and Found there is upholstered furniture and objects, not only are these staples in any living environment, they are objects that many people have a sentimental memory about within their own personal context. This ability to create relatability between the viewer’s own memories and the ones I am trying to create further pushes the idea of these memories being universal to everyone. The pieces in the show are mundane in nature but gaudy in texture, the majority of the pieces and objects have a treated surface, being treated with anything from beads, glitter, string, plastic bags, and beyond this my use of multiplicity makes these objects seem mundane rather than special.

Advisor/Mentor

Dr. Rebecca Williams, John Uttgard, Sarah Martin, Nicole Hand-Bryant, Mike Martin

Description

Materials; wood, felt, buttons, thread, flocking, found objects, metal, wire, etc...

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Chinn, Kayla, "Lost and Found" (2021). B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498). 89.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art498/89