•OPHELIA ARC•
Ophelia's work draws on feminist theorists like Kristeva and Hustvedt to create crotchet sculptures and collages that embody obsession, contradiction, and care.
(Ophelia Arc, A Counterclockwise Pull Towards You, 2024, hand dyed yarn, hand dyed ribbon, tulle, stained thread, rotted flower stained thread and 50 strands of the artists hair, 64 x 24 x 24 inches)
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I am from New York. I don’t have much free time since my studio practice is rather rigorous but I do like watching my rabbit.
How do you describe your work and practice?
My practice revolves around obsession, expressed through textile sculpture and collage. Each piece is crafted by hand, embodying my presence even in dissociative states. Grounded in feminist research, I draw from theorists like Siri Hustvedt and Julia Kristeva to examine my memories and existence. Themes such as care/malice, starvation/consumption, and melancholia/mania drive my work, exploring human contradictions. I view my creations as skins—whether stretched over frames, sutured on paper, or formed into three-dimensional shapes—subject to constant care and harm, echoing life's paradoxes.
(Ophelia Arc, Impending Capture (to follow the pull), 2024, hand dyed yarn, tulle and thread on stretcher, 17 x 4 x 25inches)
What inspires your art/design process?
Psychoanalysis, writers (Chris Krauss, Maggie Nelson, etc), fringe Internet counter culture.
(Ophelia Arc, Self-fulfilling Prophetic Trap, 2025, hand dyed yarn, hand dyed ribbon, miraculous medallion and tulle, 6 x 10 x 60 inches)
In terms of materials and imagery, what do you typically acquire for your practice?
A lot of it is personal photos which I manipulate and of course textile made from crochet. And other ephemera too that I collect and reintroduce into the ecosystem of the studio.
(Ophelia Arc, Consume Me, 2024, hand dyed yarn, oxidised hook, tulle and acrylic teeth on stretcher)
What work would you create if you had no expectation or limits?
Site specific transitional objects sculpture for psychiatric hospitals.
Do you have a repeated ritual/rhythm or strategy when it comes to your process of making?
Research is the core of my work, which from there devolves into sketches which get perspective to my tool box of mediums which best serve the ethos of the concept.
(Ophelia Arc, “Home” and other Figments, 2024, hand dyed yarn, corroded chain, artists hair, latex copy of the artists childhood house keys, tulle, and hand dyed ribbon, 16 x 16 x 76 inches)
How do you see art/design changing in the near future?
I’m not sure, it’s all a bit up in the air when it comes to our understanding and believe of visual documentation with ai but hopefully more of an emphasis on craftsmanship.
(Ophelia Arc, Endosymbiosis/synnercrosis, 2024, petri dish preserved wound, latex, acrylic tooth, artists hair, dye and photo of the artist as a child with mother and brother, and hand dyed yarn on stretch, 16.5 x 19 inches)
Thank you Ophelia! Check out her Instagram below to stay up to date on her practice.