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About the Artist Zoë Williams was born in 1983 in New Orleans, Louisiana where she lived until hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005. Her work has been displayed at venues around the country, notably Gallery Hanahou (New York), the Ogden Museum of Southern Art (New Orleans), the Museum of Death (Los Angeles), and Roq La Rue (Seattle). She currently lives and works in New York, NY. Statement My work in needle-felted wool investigates the significance of dreams and symbols. I am interested in Jungian psychology and the idea of archetypes emerging from the collective unconscious, as well as the concepts of anima/animus and shadow. I look to dreams in particular because they form a personal mythology that is unique to each person, but also incorporate universal elements common to all people. In addition to wool felt, I rely on a variety of materials to create details and textures that impart realness to fantastic subjects, achieving a lifelike quality that is otherwise completely fabricated. Animals feature prominently in my work because I often dream of animals, but their physical presence also serves as a reminder of the importance of environmental stewardship and conservation. My work references taxidermy, but to the opposite effect - unreal creatures are given a kind of life. The concept of duality is also integral to my work. Beauty is often tempered with strangeness in order to create an alternate world in which dreams are made real and the essence of an instant or idea is crystallized. My own experiences in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina also inform my work and no doubt contribute to my desire to give permanence to the fragile and ephemeral. The result is often surreal, and permeated with a macabre aesthetic that serves as a counterweight to the supple lightness of the wool felt itself. About Needle Felting Needle felting is a dry felting process in which the use of special barbed needles replaces heat and water in the production of wool felt. The technique was originally adapted from industrial felting machines, in which thousands of such needles are used simultaneously to produce felt sheets. Needle felting by hand is a very slow and painstaking process; in all but the earliest stages of a piece, I use only a single needle. No armatures are used; each piece is solid wool with the exception of additions like glass eyes, feathers, beads, and the wood plaques/frames on which some pieces are mounted. Sales Please contact the artist by email for prices. DOWNLOAD RESUME (pdf) Contact mail@zoewilliams.net |