RE-CRAFTED

Things embody whimsy and worry through their materials, formal elements, and the processes by which they are made.  Physically constructed from post-consumer telephone wires, the works are comprised of thin plastic-coated copper wires used to connect land line telephones.  Cell phones replaced many land lines in the mid 2000’s, rendering the colourful wire infrastructure obsolete in many spaces.  The collection of these wires has become akin to traditional scavenging of natural materials for weaving.  Wires are prepared through the removal of casing materials and separating individual strands of wire.  Representing urban surroundings and the impetus of progress of “wireless” devices, these sculptures reclaim old technological infrastructure holding within their very materials the many connections they once enabled.  Inspired by coral formations, fungi, plants, seed pods, and sea creatures, the sculptures mimic and liberally combine formal elements of nature.  Merging technological waste with natural formations through labour intensive and hand-made processes envisions waste materials sprouting with new life through the investment of energy and time; an imaginative alternative ending for e-waste materials.