MARIA EZCURRA // Montreal, Quebec, Canada
As an artist, I use textiles to explore, reflect and reveal the physical, emotional, and cultural limits of the body and its (dis)connection to place and boundaries –concepts that are being constantly challenged in these times of social and physical distancing. For this project, I wrapped the blue folder in which Kathleen sent me the materials to create my piece with a dark-red pantyhose and placed a pink fabric within its folds. Pantyhose is a recurrent element in my art practice, reflecting the social connotations that gender has today in diverse contexts, along with my own experiences as an immigrant woman. I see this response as a creative strategy of (self)care that also intends to embody and challenge the constraints that women and girls have experienced during the pandemic. As art, it shows the potential that art can have to connect with others while creating awareness about the gendered implications of the “new normal.”
