Lois Langmead

Lois Langmead’s works address and re-interpret women’s historical narratives, constructions of identity and the body. Her practice moves between traditional drawing on paper and intricate stitched textiles, articulating subjects from life, and depicting fragmented or distorted bodies which complicate the reading of the human form. Through her textile drawings, lines are sometimes freed from the surface, and drawings become objects that hint at familiar artifacts from the past turned inside-out. By engaging and subverting traditional, genteel techniques such as embroidery she transgresses conventional modes of femininity. A wide range of historical art and literary sources inform Lois’s practice as she questions issues surrounding gender roles and the social and political differences women experience in their lives.

As a response to the pandemic, Lois has worked with stitched miniature self-portraits, suggestive of historic cameos and portrait miniatures, as well as the altered interfaces we find ourselves using during lockdown. Lois's work confronts the changing emotional, physical and tangible connections social distancing and self isolation have forced on us.