Candace Hicks

Common Threads, Vol 124

Candace Hicks

Common Threads, Vol 124

Date

2020

Edition Size

unique

Media

Embroidery

Binding

Hand-sewn

Format

Artist Book

Dimensions

9 × 7 in

$ 2,200.00

Unavailable


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Bayerische Staatsbibliothek

Common Threads Vol 124 has a cover that is embroidered with a green pattern of the COVID-19 virus. This volume speaks of isolation in the time of COVID-19, with threads of virus and masks.

Common Threads is a series of hand-embroidered unique canvas books which copy the form and design of dime-store “composition” books.  The books themselves, self-consciously hand-made objects, are a record of coincidental occurrences generally gleaned from reading or mundane events.  The use of embroidery thread allows for the production of the text and image with the same mark and material, to make the text, image and substance of the book inseparable.

Storytelling is key to Candace Hicks’ artistic practice. There is an implied narrative in everything, even, as Hicks addresses with her work, in the seemingly pointless mental wheel spinning that is a part of daily life.  Her work acknowledges the unavoidability of simulation and the impossibility of originality.  Her choice of the book as a principle medium is due to the phenomenon of the book as authoritative.  Books provide an arena in which fiction can be accepted as fact and observations can take on a mythic narrative quality.  Her interest in books also stems from their inherent unity of text and image, which lends books continued relevance as a transmedia hybrid.