Seamed is influenced by the history of flower painting, the domestic space, and the social construction of femininity. Flower painting began as a sphere of high accomplishment, usually painted by male artists for high regard and high prices. This soon changed when the genre became a predominantly female practice; it then became regarded as a petty, genteel female accomplishment.
Domesticity is a realm of experience set apart from that which is public, yet intimately connected to it, and one that has come to be defined as female. This work embraces this space and reveals it to be complicated, constrictive, obsessive and maybe slightly menacing.
I carefully construct still life scenes in my home: flowers and foliage are draped, sewn, tied, bound and suspended into position before the camera. This controlled method is integral to the resultant pictures, dominating the domestic environment, using a large format plate camera to capture the fabricated scenes. I undertake each stage of the photographic process: the sheet film is developed by hand, and the final pictures are hand-printed in the darkroom.
