Woven Treasures

I constructed these images using a simple theatrical device, the stage. The scenes were set up, back-lit, and the shadow show was photographed. Informed by literature these images become visual tales for me.

Shadows are malleable like imagination and memories. They are beautiful, seductive and romantic, but monstrous, ominous and gloomy at once. Only distorted outlines of barely recognizable objects are revealed. The sewn stitches resemble the silhouettes as they trace outlines, leaving ends unraveling. I hope to evoke the viewer's imagination as I explore familiar lessons through drama, narrative, and games.

Kati Toivanen


"Formally, the tale differs from the short story in that it makes few pretenses at the imitation of life. The tale does not log everyday experience, as the short story does; it interprets everyday experience through a system of imagery derived from subterranean areas behind everyday experience, and therefore the tale cannot betray its readers into false knowledge of everyday experience."

Angela Carter, Afterword from
Fireworks - Nine Profane Pieces