Vintage nets, specifically horse-fly nets and fishing nets, are central to Amy Usdin’s work. Through years of use, these objects begin in Usdin’s studio as heavily worn. In the artist’s hands, they are re-constructed from pure functionality into sculptural form. Working intuitively, in a precipitous back and forth, Usdin primarily works off-loom, weaving new fibers into the nets. Including cotton, hemp, leather, linen, paper and wool.

Such a process of careful integration yields highly pastiched dimensions and emotive works. In the artist’s words, these forms become abstracted ‘psychological and physical landscapes’. At the centre, as the artist weaves, is her processing of personal history, all while resonating with collective experiences of grief and renewal. Her pieces emerge as fields of narrative and temporal complexity, as old and new materials entangle.