Valerie Carew (Toronto, Ontario) is an interdisciplinary artist who explores human/land relationships through performance, body based sculpture, installation,painting and fibre craft practice. Immersive role-play and biomimicry are combined with sculpture and textile craft to express experiences with land and identity. Valerie's sculptural works are designed for interplay and physical contact with the human body. She incorporates nostalgia, myth-making and material transformation to imagine new futures defined by a greater connection to the wild.
Statement
Engagement with land is a big motivation in my art practice. I make textile wearables and engage with natural
environments using immersive role-play. I am interested in exploring speculative design using the material language
of rug fabrication to communicate place, memory and human experience. My family's east coast roots (the settler
cultures of Newfoundland and New Brunswick), have influenced my experiences within the wilds of Canada as well as
my art making. Traditional methods of hand hooked rug making, such as material reuse, pictorial storytelling and
folklore are referenced and re-configured into land immersive wearables and three dimensional sculptures with
mechanical moving parts.