Caroline Achaintre

This work may appear abstract but it was conceived as a mask. The folds and shadows in the fabric suggest the forms of a mouth and two ears. Achaintre’s masks draw on the spirit of carnival, they are both playful and absurd, fantastical and unsettling. AstraY was made using a process called hand-tufting. This involves using a small handheld gun to shoot yarn through the woven canvas. As the wool is tufted from the back of the canvas Achaintre develops her compositions through intuition. She likens the process to painting with wool.