Shelter, a hanging knitted paper nest inspired by the nesting design of Weaver birds, grew out of a period of intense involvement with a family member who was in a state of mental, emotional and physical distress. Recorded medical and behavioural documentation then became the gathered nesting material that created Shelter. The nest-like form represents ideas of care, protection, nurturing and hope. The IV bag within reminds of the institutional aspect that this type of experience can entail and the dichotomy between the clinical and seemingly unnatural with intensely bodily focused time. Shelter was then photographed in both natural and clinical settings.

Kelly O’Neill is an installation, mixed media and textile artist who lives near Peterborough, ON. Working with assemblage and text, video and projection, and incorporating traditional textile methods with unconventional materials, O’Neill creates objects and experiences that explore the fluidity and impermeability of embodied experience.