Caitlin McCormack is a Philadelphia fiber artist whose work explores isolation, queerness, and existential dread through an uncanny and sometimes humorous lens.  Inspired by folklore, botanical motifs, and osteological displays, they crochet cotton thread, then dredge the material in glue and pigment which allows it to take on a structural form. They compare the transformative act of stiffening the soft cotton fibers to biological processes like ossification or the formation of scar tissue.

At first glance, their work appears to be innocently soft and decorative. Closer observation reveals imagery that evokes loss and atrophy. For their exhibition at Philadelphia International Airport, McCormack lines the exhibition case with wallpaper that resembles French toile. Toile is a traditional textile featuring vignettes of pastoral scenes that typically include floral patterns or people enjoying leisurely activities in nature. McCormack’s wallpaper inverts the classic blue-on-white colorway and depicts small animal skeletons whose delicate bones curl into lacy tendrils. Their fiber-based sculptures are heavily obscured by an overgrowth of crocheted vines and flowers. McCormack describes their work as an external representation of their inner thoughts surrounding hierarchy, craft, trauma and ecology. They write, “Each object is an unraveling relic of a thought, tethered to a surface and made viewable at a distance.” The resulting artworks reflect upon the tenacity of life and the relationship between artifacts and living, organic forms.

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