Trees & Fire

Trees and Fire (2025) , vintage bedspring, iron, rope,  48" x 48" x 60"

Suspended from the branches of trees on the campus of Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Upstate New York, my woven sculptures Cautionary Tails and Trees and Fire (both 2025) incorporate a variation of the Andean khipu—an ancient Inca record-keeping system made of knotted strings. To create these works, I tied colorful rope around small found objects—children’s toys and toy-sized water chestnut seed pods—interweaving domestic and natural memories.

To create Trees and Fire, I revisited my collection of vintage plastic toy figures, originally acquired over 20 years ago for the making of Wonder Woman Cosmos. I incorporated yellow and red firemen, green trees, orange cones, and yellow caution signs, knotting them into rows of macramé string. This piece continues an ongoing series in which I combine fiber with everyday materials such as chairs, bedsprings, and discarded toys. The objects woven into the ropes serve as cultural signifiers of domestic life and women’s labor—artifacts of manufactured society that embed layered meanings within the work.