Bio

Victoria Carley started her career as a visual artist specializing in watercolours and paper sculpture before returning to university and graduating with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Toronto. She then put aside art to focus on her professional practice, specializing in city gardens and country properties. Unexpectedly in the 2000’s Victoria began sewing, and gradually, developed her particular style of textile art and, also gradually, she reduced her Landscape Architecture practice to focus increasingly on her art. Victoria Carley’s early works were traditional quilts using non-traditional combinations of upholstery fabric. In 2010 Victoria visited the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. While immersed in these works, Victoria wondered how the robustly male, and emotionally explicit, sensibility of abstract expressionism would combine with the femininity of fabric patchwork. Victoria gradually developed her unique style and approach to textile art that combines aspects of the tradition of quilting with abstract expressionism. Victoria Carley works directly from her title and mental image, and her selection of fabric, without preliminary drawings. This allows her to freely consider the emotions and memories that inspire her work. Victoria’s work has been shown within the curatorial context of visual art, textiles, art quilts, and fine crafts. She lives, and produces her art, in Toronto, Canada.

Artist Statement

Although my work is abstract, it is based on stories and, therefore, the real, natural world. I am particularly interested in the imagery of traditional European Myths and Fairy Tales and how we can use these stories to examine personal, cultural, and collective memory. In my interpretations of the myths I focus on the person/god/titan/being who is, for me, the central character. These ‘characters’ are actors with agency but often also victims, having less power than the major gods so their stories have always been open to interpretation and have also continued, surprisingly, to stay remarkably relevant. For example Prometheus, a Titan, assisted Zeus in creating humans and became very fond of them and, therefore, disobeyed Zeus and gave them fire which gave them warmth and the ability to cook. For this Prometheus was punished by Zeus. What Prometheus did not foresee was that with fire we could also develop technology and dominate and degrade the natural world . His punishment - eternal life in which his liver was eaten out very day by an eagle - is a chilling metaphor for the Anthropocene.

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