Janet Loren Hill
Through painting, fibers, installation, video, and soft sculpture, I
challenge historical norms in figurative painting that are based
on a female muse and male genius artist, presenting my vocal
female voice as a counter. Mining my experience of navigating the
fluidity of identity throughout a long-term partnership with my
husband that began when we were fifteen, I flip traditional gender
roles in portraiture.
I use textile techniques such as weaving, knitting, crochet, latch
hook, and basketry to refer to their historical use by revolutionary
female activist groups, their embodiment of domestic memories,
and the metaphorical possibilities of their entanglement of two
threads/reeds/grids to make a whole.
I invite the audience into vulnerable moments in my marriage,
providing an empowered and questioning female voice that asks
where societal expectations and identity construction dangerously
collide, and what it means to exist as an ever-evolving person
beside another. Sensuous paint, rounded protruding surfaces that
do not fit together perfectly, and humorous yarn that conjures
collective memories of domestic interiors all contribute to a
fluctuating narrative of an ongoing lived experience.