Olivia Mae Sinclair Banners + Patches

Perfect for a bedroom or workspace. Let the people around you know how you really feel!

This is an artist multiple. Made from recycled linen and cotton. Each letter is hand cut.

Olivia Mae Sinclair is a Sheridan Textiles Graduate, OCADU MFA Candidate, and teaching assistant.

Typically books made from fabric are intended for children and infants. Olivia Mae Sinclair’s books however are made for lovers, survivors, artists, her, him, them and me. Her previous theme “Infatuation and Anxiety” talks about the pain that one goes through while in a short-term sexual relationship. It is and was a confessional style that speaks directly to Sinclair’s personal traumas with sexual violence and heartbreak. Currently, she is moving away from holding onto the pain and turning it into a satirical and playful approach to healing.

Sinclair analyzes the emotional implications of power and sex between female and male identifying individuals. The form and shape of the books demonstrate the theme of deterioration through manipulation such as cutting, ripping, and fraying. Techniques include are screen printing, sewing, and machine embroidery. The books have a raw and rough quality to them as they borrow the visual language from sketchbooks, journal entries and the zine community. Overall, her question remains; how do we read with our entire body?

Sinclair takes inspiration from the sloppy craft movement. Sloppy Craft as defined by honouring the process of making over the final piece. Handwriting is an important part of the books and sloppiness to articulate the intimacy and confessions held within. Sinclair wants the audience to be equally dazzled and disgusted by the books - but in order for this to happen, the audience must engage and touch the pieces, usually in a public setting. Relational Aesthetics is one way Sinclair likes to think about audience and the work.