artist statement
Emotional Labour: rage, sorrow, resentment, frustration, and heartbreak
In my conversations with my witness I was struck by the many emotions she felt in dealing with the situation with her friend, and in her position as a support worker. I decided to create my two companion pieces trying to convey some of those emotions.
The first artwork centres around her anger/sorrow/frustration/heartbreak about the violence and hurt experience by victims of violence.
The work centres around the silhouetted figure of the witness in profile, with her head tilted upwards, her mouth open with teeth bared in a grimace, and her fists raised in the air in a gesture of anger and frustration. Her figure is surrounded by metallic flames depicting her rage. Above this tableau is a swirl of blue paper cut with tear drop shapes depicting her sorrow. 
There is a red love heart cracked into two pieces, positioned on her upper arm, depicting heartbreak.
Emotional Labour: nurture, shelter, protection and healing
The second artwork also centres around emotions, and the witness’s desire to provide support and be a place of safety/shelter/nurturing/protection/healing for her friend, and others.
The second artwork centres around a silhouetted figure of the witness with her back facing the viewer. Her fists are raised above her head in a posture of defiance, protection, and strength. Positioned within her chest there is a small curled up figure inset within her body.There is a red love heart with a crack down the centre depicting a partially mended broken heart. The figure of my witness has hand-drawn leaves in metallic gel pen flowing in and around her body symbolising healing, nurturing, and support.
bio
Rachael Ashe is a graduate of the Creative Photography program at Humber College, and is a multidisciplinary artist self-taught in papercraft. Rachael credits her former position as a photographer at the Textile Museum of Canada, and through it an extensive exposure to handcrafted textiles, as a major influence on her work with paper to this day. In December 2013, Rachael was the featured monthly speaker at Creative Mornings in Vancouver, and she spoke on the topic of making by hand to a two-hundred-person audience. In 2017 she was the CCBC nominee for the Mayor’s Arts Award in the category of Craft and Design. She has exhibited across Canada, the US, and the UK, as well as been published in Uppercase Magazine, and the books Design Genius, and Paper Play.
