Isabella King

My practice is rooted in the belief that material informs meaning. To me, the objects that fill our lives, have lives of their own. After their creation they travel from person to person, from household to household, gathering residual memories and new cultural associations. The objects we fill our lives with act as repositories for our culture, personal histories and so much more. In my work, I transform these objects, drawing upon those histories and cultural associations while juxtaposing them with new contexts and purposes, creating layered meanings.

I am especially drawn to materials and techniques traditionally dominated by women or designated to the domestic sphere. My work seeks to blur the lines between "high" and "low" materials exposing the arbitrary and often contradictory cultural assumptions underpinning them. Themes of gender, home, and space can be seen throughout my work.

This installation is part of a larger soft sculpture and quilt installation project called Take Caution designed to explore themes of gender, space, and ownership. The full project consist of 10-12 life-sized quilted traffic cones and about 100 yards of quilted and appliquéd caution tape made from reclaimed textiles and other fiber-based media.

Take Caution was first conceived several months ago during one of my daily commutes. I began to notice how ubiquitous traffic cones are in our modern landscape, and how they operate as complex symbols of safety and separation. They control how bodies move through space, while also signaling who owns—or doesn’t own—that space. Who has the right to cone off the road? Who has the right to mark their favorite parking spot? The more I thought about the traffic cone as a symbol, the more I thought about its ability to influence attitudes about how public space is occupied and by whom. On a personal level, this project is about asserting myself as an artist and carving out space for myself in the world.