MARK CORFIELD-MOORE

“Other Follies and Picnics” draws upon childhood picnics that the artist and his family had at the historic estate of Stourhead in England through his own renditions of the actual follies featured in these gardens. Often mimicking classical temples, follies are fantastical architectural buildings designed for amusement and pleasure. Through his depictions, Corfield-Moore under- mines a more straight forward reading of these buildings by including the names of traditional Thai dishes, the ones that he and his family would have eaten during their visits. The strength of these works lies in their ambiguity and playful sense of humor, where both the societal and the personal, the historic and the mundane are simultaneously combined.

The medium of textiles is one that is malleable and reworkable. Historically used for tents or rugs, its ability to claim space is what interests Cor- field-Moore, and he draws parallels between this use of space and the act of setting up for a picnic. The thresholds between public and private, historical and personal, and Western and Thai are fertile spaces that the artist explores, while the act of weaving becomes a meditation on the idiosyncrasies of past events and experiences.