SOFT MONUMENT

Fallen branches, discarded cashmere samples, embroidery thread, rope, plaster. 200cmx100cm approx

Soft monument combines discarded cashmere samples with fallen tree branches. Ashley employs crafting techniques through the use of embroidery thread and cord that tightly cling the trees limbs, processes that link to the revolutionary feminist practices of the 1970s, a strong theoretical intrigue for the artist.

Ashley’s practice has an inbuilt sustainability as it is driven by repair, reuse and regeneration. Found and received materials are given a new value and are treated with the respect they command. Often sculptures will be suspended, metaphorically echoing the importance of an ecological balance within life. The process of repairing and rebuilding is both the artist’s internal human psychological experience making the work, and simultaneously acts as a metaphor showing the importance of the physical regenerative process in the natural world. Often an artwork will be dismantled to be rebuilt. Two works become one, one work becomes three, two open works become whole and closed; Ashley’s hand process mirrors the cyclical in nature, always evolving.