Emilie Mason

The Abominable Waste-Man

Central to the embroidery in this project is the artist’s use of her daily output of waste. Altering the hierarchy of materials by marrying unrecyclable garbage with the expensive finishes of goldwork and embellishment, Emilie Mason is an alchemist transforming mundane, discarded rubbish into something with value. Marrying ancient, traditional craft with ideas of sustainability in hand embroidery, the end piece is a creature; literally a creation made from monstrous waste, provoking viewers to consider their own abominable rubbish.

Mason is an artist and a collector, using her work as a basis for displaying thread bundles, crisp packets, nails, trinkets, and anything else that her magpie eye takes a shining to. Specialising in the alternate and ornate, her work compiles oddities with hand embroidery techniques to create a stunning dichotomy between the throwaway and the collectable. Through her practice, she hopes to provoke people to reduce and repurpose non-recyclable waste.

emiliemasonmason@gmail.com