Rafaella McDonald, ‘How ___ relates to a pair of pants, I'm not sure’, 2020, repurposed bed sheets and cotton fabric dyed with rose petals found in Fitzroy, Eucalyptus leaves, and synthetic dye, shoe keyrings found in downtown Los Angeles, LED candles, thread, installation view: West Space, Collingwood Yards, 2020. Photography courtesy of Aaron Christopher Rees.
Interested in unstable states, Rafaella McDonald explores notions of precarity through material. The installation How____ relates to a pair of pants I’m not sure consists of two pieces of suspended hand-dyed fabric, anchored by a line of tiny shoes, to create an anthropomorphised pair of pants. This fabric has been reworked through various processes of staining, patterning and mark marking including imprints from found objects, mixtures of synthetic and natural dyes from gathered materials. The abstracted form of unwearable pants is a recurring symbol for the artist, other iterations have been made out of edible, domestic substances including toffee and boiled candy. Here, the pants are pinned in place by double ended candles, an allusion to envitiable combustion and the exhaustion that comes from lighting the candle at both ends.
Rafaella McDonald, ‘How ___ relates to a pair of pants, I'm not sure’, 2020, repurposed bed sheets and cotton fabric dyed with rose petals found in Fitzroy, Eucalyptus leaves, and synthetic dye, shoe keyrings found in downtown Los Angeles, LED candles, thread, installation view: West Space, Collingwood Yards, 2020. Photography courtesy of Aaron Christopher Rees.
Rafaella McDonald, ‘How ___ relates to a pair of pants, I'm not sure’, 2020, repurposed bed sheets and cotton fabric dyed with rose petals found in Fitzroy, Eucalyptus leaves, and synthetic dye, shoe keyrings found in downtown Los Angeles, LED candles, thread, installation view: West Space, Collingwood Yards, 2020. Photography courtesy of Aaron Christopher Rees.
Rafaella McDonald, ‘How ___ relates to a pair of pants, I'm not sure’, 2020, repurposed bed sheets and cotton fabric dyed with rose petals found in Fitzroy, Eucalyptus leaves, and synthetic dye, shoe keyrings found in downtown Los Angeles, LED candles, thread, installation view: West Space, Collingwood Yards, 2020. Photography courtesy of Aaron Christopher Rees.
Rafaella McDonald, ‘How ___ relates to a pair of pants, I'm not sure’, 2020, repurposed bed sheets and cotton fabric dyed with rose petals found in Fitzroy, Eucalyptus leaves, and synthetic dye, shoe keyrings found in downtown Los Angeles, LED candles, thread, installation view: West Space, Collingwood Yards, 2020. Photography courtesy of Aaron Christopher Rees.
Rafaella McDonald, ‘How ___ relates to a pair of pants, I'm not sure’, 2020, repurposed bed sheets and cotton fabric dyed with rose petals found in Fitzroy, Eucalyptus leaves, and synthetic dye, shoe keyrings found in downtown Los Angeles, LED candles, thread, installation view: West Space, Collingwood Yards, 2020. Photography courtesy of Aaron Christopher Rees.