The self-taught artist known as Mister Finch has a visual language that is equal parts lovely and disturbing. These soft sculptures are sewn from sentimental and grandmotherly fabrics, but the forms are of dead birds and rabbit heads. The contrast is wonderfully interesting!
Finch explains that he sources his materials second-hand; this is partly for its ethics, but also to reference the object’s past lives. “A story sewn in, woven in– velvet curtains from an old hotel, a threadbare wedding dress and a vintage apron become birds and beasts.”
Finch said that his creations are “storytelling creatures for people who are also a little lost, found and forgotten.” It is this mood of melancholy longing that makes his work so alluring.
Very eery.
These are painful, heartbreaking… and beautiful. But it is the pain that I find piercing through me. I can only imagine that Mister Finch is excruciatingly sensitive to the suffering of sentient beings. I hope he is sensitive to the joy, too.