THE END OF SENSATION

THE END OF SENSATION is a handwoven tapestry measuring 24 x 48 inches. This piece is made of cotton, wool, nylon, and alpaca fibers on a hand-finished oak dowel. 

THE END OF SENSATION is a meditation on chronic illness as an onslaught of feeling. In my own illness, pain has been a colonizing force, a deluge of sense pushing through my nervous system and washing out bits of myself I. had mistaken before as permanent fixtures of the landscape. This piece visualizes the power of pain as a catastrophic force, and as the gradient lightens, makes a gesture of curiosity towards an imagined body apart from pain -- if it was gone, what would be left? Is there any body without pain that remains, anywhere within me? 

In an effort to materialize that experience of overwhelm, and to imagine a future moment where it might run out, I chose an arresting, aggressive color palette. A confronting pink wool is paired with a toothy waxed cotton. Between the two, an agitated, feathery combination of florescent pink bridges the gradient.