Janine Brown- Patterns & Pieces: Recipes of Home

My work is informed by a curiosity about materials, as well as my experience as a fashion designer, wife, and mother of twins from the rural Midwest. I explore the identity of people, places, and things, through sculpture, painting, printmaking, photography, video, and installation art. The history of the home economics movement informs my current body of work. Started in 1899, the movement used science as a basis for female-led innovation in the home, a process I replicate in my studio. Using kitchen chemistry, I cook biodegradable plastic and rubber composites that encapsulate kitchen leftovers, family financial statements, U.S. currency, and flowers. The symbolic composites are used to create objects and Victorian quilt patterns that are stitched and crafted together to critique myths of the domestic space, women, and capitalism. Due to their biodegradable properties, the objects have the potential to be “freed” given the right environmental conditions.

–Janine Brown