EVERY MONSTER IS A MOTHER features print and textile pieces from a new body of work which I began this summer as a Headlands Centre for the Arts Artist in Residence and continued during my time as an Ace Hotel Artist in Residence. The series is currently on show in the gallery space at Ace Hotel New York, Manhattan 

“Writing from prison under Mussolini’s regime, Antonio Gramsci penned his theory of the Interregnum- a period of instability between the collapse of one dominant regime and the rise on then next. A loose translation of Gramsci’s words has become an axiom: ‘The old world is dying. The new struggles to be born. Now is the time of Monsters”.  

One culture’s monster is another’s deity. “Every Monster is a Mother” is a selection of pieces drawn from Debris’ current body of work, which broadly considers the monstrous as a site of liberatory potential. . Debris’ idiosyncratic process of image-making involves the break-down and reconstitution of original and found photographs- often of culturally loaded subject matter- into chaotic and beguiling new forms. During his time as an Ace Hotel resident, Debris captured fine details of numerous well-known New York City structures: government buildings, banking institutions, headquarters of corporate dynasties, churches and US military monuments. These emblematic structures of US Imperial dominance and military might are chopped and screwed into a compost of data and vestigial form, from which a range of speculative entities begin to arise. The works invite an imagining of New York City as a future ruin, reclaimed by a speculative pantheon of monstrous gods and godly monsters, both fearsome and playful in aspect. The hard structures of a global empire are are transformed into soft, vibrant textiles and other talismans designed to adorn, beautify and protect the body and its dwelling places.” 

Print editions, limited edition apparel, and objects from this series are currently available for purchase.