Anna Buckner

Region: Midwest

Website: http://www.annabuckner.com

City / State: Valle Crucis, NC

Liminality is soft. It is malleable, compliant, acquiescent, and supple. At its worst, it is impressionable, submissive, gullible, and feeble. At its best, it yields empathy and patience. I find strength in liminality—in vulnerability.

My work explores vulnerability through materials. Soft, it exists somewhere between piecework and painting. I select stretchy fabrics that have a high potential for change when they are pulled over a support. In their elasticity, materials such as Spandex and knits reference skin, and pulling these fabrics over a support causes them to swell like the body. I piece the fabric scraps together, forming a quilt top that is then stretched on a support. The initial design of the piecework is compromised through stretching, causing the material to warp. The support of the painting is therefore a tool for transformation, revealing the potential of the materials and pushing them into roles for which they are not traditionally used.

The balance of existing in a liminal state is precarious. This unpredictability creates space for transformation, encouraging growth and expansion.