Lydia Haywood-Munn

In my practice I focus on the everyday objects around us—their tactility and their potential as vessels for narrative and meaning. Collections of pop tabs, diner placemats, postcards, stones, and linens are reframed as tethers against the fragmentary nature of memory. Cradled in our hands, heated by the warmth of our palms, worn thin by the weight of our bodies: these objects bare the traces of our use. In my work, gathered and arranged objects are held in tension with cloth and painstaking stitch-work. Inspiring imagined touch while denying the viewer physical contact, my sculptures push against the fragile boundaries of intimacy. I investigate the ways in which objects index longing, promising, yet incapable of fulfilling, reunion. My materials are discarded objects and remnants, vulnerable to the passage of time, dissolving in my hands as I work, echoing the ultimate incompleteness of memory.

Originally from Spencerville, ON, Lydia Haywood-Munn is an artist working with video, textiles and found objects. She received her BFA in 2011 from Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB.

Image: Untitled, 2019. 2,310 aluminum pop can tabs. 8 x 2 x 2 inches.