Caitlin McCormack
Pulled Through a Portal Into a Place Where No One Wants to Be, 2023
Hand-crocheted cotton string, glue, foraged pigment, faux fur, and fringe on mixed-media base
18 x 17 x 9" (dimension variable)

Artist Statement
My work is constructed from hand-crocheted cotton thread, dredged in glues and foraged pigments, and fashioned into sculptural forms. Drawing from folkloric botanical motifs, institutional osteological displays, sci-fi and body-horror cinema, and extended periods spent alone with an overactive imagination, I consider society's reluctance to legitimize gendered craft and interpret crochet as a behavioral response to apocalyptic conditions. Repetitively generating, saturating, and stiffening each unit transforms soft material into static compositions, recontextualizing despair and rage as ornate, provocative, and occasionally comical specimens. With the addition of materials and objects obscured by overgrowths of fibrous vines and lace-like flowers, each object's integrity is reinforced by complex networks, just as we are strengthened by the calcified scars of lived experience.

Artist Bio
Philadelphia-based fiber artist and educator Caitlin McCormack has contributed works to solo and group exhibitions at Elijah Wheat Showroom, Field Projects, Hashimoto Contemporary, The Mütter Museum, Museum Rijswijk, The Mesa Contemporary Art Museum, The Taubman Museum of Art, The Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Feinkünst Krüger, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Future Fair, and with BravinLee Programs in NYC. Their sculptures have appeared in publications including The New York Times, Hyperallergic, BOMB, Juxtapoz, Whitehot Magazine, Smithsonian, and Bust Magazine. In addition to holding teaching positions at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Hussian College of Art and Design, McCormack has participated in artist residencies at The Vermont Studio Center, Monson Arts, The Peter Bullough Foundation, The Wassaic Project, Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, Kimmel Harding Nelson, and The C-Scape Dune Shack Artist Residency Program in Provincetown, MA. McCormack was the recipient of a Joseph Robert Foundation grant in 2021 and received the Woodmere Art Museum's Maurice Freed Memorial Prize in 2023.

caitlintmccormack.com