Years ago, in an interview with Erin M. Riley, she told us "For a long time, I tried to remain respectful, but finally realized that while my work is made on a loom, these pieces are not traditional by any means, and rather than call them tapestries, I have just started describing them by the materials they are made with. I do love talking with the students who are studying textiles currently. They are excited about the work I am making, and I am glad they can see a different way of using materials that have been untapped and underappreciated for so long." Why this stood out to me, years later, as Riley opened Watering False Flowers in her debut in Paris at cadet capela, just the unique position Riley is in and how she was working in textiles at the early stages of its revival with contemporary artists. And how personal, political, powerful her messages are. Each work, depicting "sexuality, violence, the objectification of the female body," are intricate as they are universal, Erin as the subject but handmade so that the viewer can feel both a voyeur and intrusive.
"The ‘false’ flowers symbolize the experiences of violence and dysfunction that society often chooses to ignore or minimize," Riley says. "Trauma survivors often experience dissociation, and I’ve had many moments in my life where I had to remind myself that I existed. With this exhibition, I revisit the moments when I was truly present. The series of objects — money, radios, COVID tests, bloody tissues, flowers, selfies in basements, a mirror — act as portals, slits, black holes into spaces and times where life was defined by a before and after. Emptying, regenerating, repeating, reaffirming are all ideas I explore in this exhibition."
