Passing Fancies
From a cursory examination of any department store, it is clear that cotton dominates the production of clothing and home goods. At one time, however, linen played this role. In the popular imagination linen now has connotations with luxury, fragility, and delicacy, despite the strength and resilience of its fibers. Passing Fancies, a large installation commissioned for the Portneuf Linen Biennial, considers this exchange between linen and cotton by reconstructing the formal properties of linen (flax) from cotton of varying shades. Amidst a forest of tubular shapes inspired by the microscopic structure of the flax stalk, the discerning viewer may notice traces of linen integrated, like jewels, into the large expanse of cotton.
