Artist Statement

Reggie Harrold

April 21, 2023

 

I create garment objects that are both worn and displayed. I work with materials that are at hand: recycled fabrics, beading thread, ribbon, recycled clothing.  The act of “repurposing” materials gives them new meanings and memories. Through my interaction with them, I create a sort of “bond” or connection, while also soothing my own anxieties. The scale of the objects are determined by my body as well as my working conditions: my home, my couch, and intimate spaces. The working methods come through in commonly used Indigenous heritage influences, as well as non-traditional techniques I learned as a child. These are transformed through additional influences in contemporary art and fashion design, playing with questions of what is passed down, and what re-emerges.

 

My recent work has involved focusing my technique to spool knitting, a textile looping method taught to me as a child. The technique involves the repetition of carrying a loop of string-like material over a peg either with your fingers or a “pick” in a circular motion to create a tubular like ‘string’ or ‘braid’. The practice is very time consuming, compulsive, and involves a direct point of contact with the body, my body. The material I am currently and exclusively working with is artificial sinew. This is a craft product that is manufactured to replicate natural animal sinew which traditionally comes from the tendons or ligaments of animals.  It is commonly used for basket making, beading, snowshoes, rattles, and dream-catchers and much more in First Nations communities. In interacting with the body in action, the sinew takes on many different functions, many that could be seen as a second skin, net, trap, armor, concealment, protection or covering.