Riley Brady
The detailed and time-intensive work of my recent series of embroidered web pages represent the time and energy I spend going down online rabbit holes related to my obsessive, and often religiously-tied health and body fears. Eschaton specifically relates to the psychosomatic toll health anxiety can cause on the physical body.
Terrace 5 (I couldn’t possibly) 2021
Etching and Embroidery 15.25” x 13.25”
Self Diagnosis (Eschaton) 2022
Embroidery on Paper 12.25” x 9.25”
My Purgatory series functions as a meditation on my year in quarantine from COVID-19, interpreted through the seven terraces of purgatory described in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. I use two processes in each print: etching and hand embroidery. The etching portrays the real, and the medium itself is meant to hearken to the biblical intaglios of the past, particularly Gustave Doré’s Purgatorio prints. The embroidery illustrates the “sacred” elements of the text. In my work, I use embroidery as a way of turning the mundane into something precious.