Heart Eyes
2023, 48” x 39”
“In her newest body of work, Pillow Talk, Coulter Fussell continues her practice of elaborating on personal narrative through the process of quilting and piecework. An avid fan of reusing, Fussell finds her material strictly from donations to her studio. These donations run the gamut from shower curtains to Cut-N-Sew pillows and t-shirts that carry histories from their previous owners and promote a collective remembering with the artist.With each of the scenes in this exhibition, Fussell uses the shape of headboards as a vehicle for mapping out the dreamy, steamy, subversive, and surreal world we experience while asleep.
Playing off the fact that we are consistently surrounded by textiles when we go to bed at night, she creates a transcription of dreams onto the ‘headboards’ like TV screens playing out subconscious thoughts. The combined effect of memory through the lens of dreaming establishes a mood for reflection that favors emotion in its storytelling. Within the long tradition of this storytelling through quilting and traditional craft, Fussell’s final works give access to her personal experience, both self-conscious and not, with touchstones for the audience to situate themselves in the work.”
— Curator Jeanette McCune, Cleo The Project Space
