Description:
Leather, textile, straps and symbols of circularity and whimsy dismantle the trope of downtrodden womanhood.
They suggest forms of forgotten knowledge and strength we have the ability to access within.
Using the visual language of tailoring Leather poems seek to make visible the unseen effort required to carry lightness in the face of outdated systems of acceptance and belief.
Use of strapping to connect, pull up, hold together, or hold on draws on references to fashion, luggage, mental health settings and bondage.
Tucks, pleats, ties, feathers, hand-stitching and knitting are foundational to the artist’s practice as intervention and a ‘handmade recovery’.
The artist’s recurrent use of leather as a stand in for vulnerability invites reconnection to our own nature, as a part of the wider natural world.
Part of a series of 4 Leather Poems.
Biography:
Tyler Moorehead is a sculptor using folklore and objects to challenge conventional notions of respectability and codes of conduct when moving between cultures.
Her installations have been shown at TATE Modern, IRCAM Paris and London Design Biennale.
A previous career in mental health and a lifetime dancing between culture, language and unspoken rules inspire Tyler’s line of enquiry into behavioural norms.
Through objects, Tyler straddles boundaries of status and time to reset generational expectations. She collects and sources items from the land, from old houses, from family heirlooms and from dumpsters. She draws on fashion to link present to past. She reclaims local folklore to unlock her own ancestral wisdom.
Before practicing, Tyler initiated the mental health leadership programme for the social care Masters at Middlesex University. She has worked on environmental leadership projects for the UN Environment Programme, UN Food & Agricultural Organisation and G.L.O.B.E. International. Tyler is included in the title 100 words: 200 visionaries share their hopes for the future, (Conari Press). She was awarded ‘Art Installation of the Year’ by Design in Mental Health, 2019.
Tyler studied cultural anthropology and documentary film for her B.A. before returning to education to complete a Masters in experiential research and design from the Royal College of Art in 2021.
Born and raised in the US, Tyler made 49 house moves across countries and contexts, emigrating to the UK where she lived for many years before settling in Italy in 2020.