Can you believe these enchanting installations are made entirely out of thread?
Amanda McCavour's pieces — which can take weeks to construct — are as delicate as they are massive
Amanda McCavour's art might be able to be fit into a few shoeboxes, but once it's installed, her work can entirely take over a gallery space...using only thread.
McCavour spends hours upon hours in her studio, stitching both by hand and machine. What she ends up with pieces that are as delicate as they are massive — kind of part sculpture, part drawing — that hang from the gallery's ceiling to create immersive spaces. Says McCavour: "I am sort of interested in the layering of small gestures to create something bigger."
Watch the video:
Translating the initial idea into the finished product is painstaking and requires imagination. While McCavour has a rough idea of what the installation will look like when hung, she doesn't have the chance to test it out in her studio (which is on the small side). So hanging one of her shows at a gallery can take weeks, as she carefully adjusts each component and changes the height and distance between her webbed string creations. She says this part of the process is her favourite, because it's the moment when she sees her efforts come to life.
In this video, watch her intricate and exacting process as she prepares for an upcoming show in Stratford, Ontario. From stitching by hand to making parts of her work disappear to employing a hyper-technological machine that's actually a little scary, seeing McCavour making at work will blow your mind.
See more of her art:
Watch CBC Arts: Exhibitionists on Friday nights at 11:30pm (12am NT) and Sundays at 3:30pm (4pm NT) on CBC Television.