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Sally Hewett

Canterbury
I am a textile, embroidery and stitch artist interested in the human body and how it records it’s physical experiences and it’s history
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I am interested in the social and political history of stitching and embroidery. My practice centres around ideas of beauty and ugliness and the conventions which determine our definitions of each. Notions of beauty from Aristotle onwards have emphasised symmetry, proportion, and harmony. I am interested in picking apart these arbitrary definitions of perfection and holding them up to scrutiny. Are some characteristics of bodies inherently beautiful or ugly or do fashion and convention prevent us from seeing them objectively? I am interested in how we see things and how we interpret what we see: does my particular way of representing bodies, using fabrics and stitching, affect how the content of the work is seen? I’m fascinated by how the body records it’s history, with stretch marks, scars, bruises etc., and how it lays down it’s fat reserves - the body as a documentary. And in how people change their bodies intentionally with plastic surgery, fillers, exercise etc., - the body as a novel.

 

Nursing Chair

Nipple sampler

Sweltering

Them

Pixeltits

Plumped up

160lb down

Louis’ Chair

The Milkmaid’s Tale

Petals

Convolvulus

Vasomotor Instability

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