Anna Kimp

Monster; meaning a being on the margin of society, an ‘Other’ to a ‘Self’, a being that defies categorisation and lives beyond borders; ambiguous, leaky, unruly - the in-between, the composite, the chimera. Monsters are approached, not as a being to fear, but as harbingers of possibility. For while they threaten the status quo, unruly bodies can also be a site of imagination and transformation. By drawing on monsters we can lean on their strength, their uncontainability.

Textile, to me, is imbued with learning from my mother, with every stitch I see my mother’s hands in mine, I Become her. The labour of hand stitching forces a slow process, every time the needle hits the cloth is intentional, nurturing. This technical choice highlights the softer side of the work, contrasting with the depiction of monsters, with repulsive squirming worms. Cloth also refers to the home, to the domestic sphere and the bedsheets I sleep under. This is where performance is suspended, where mutants and deviants alike can exist otherwise.