NOBA Nordic Baltic contemporary art platform

Burnout Blanket, 2021

195 x 117 cm

Textile, metal


Burnout Blanket (2021) is a double-sided hand-sewn textile piece, which draws inspiration from quilting, traditional tapestry and burnout culture. “Gravity Blanket is a mixed media body of work consisting of photographic and sculptural pieces. It considers neurological queerness, embodied knowledge, touch, resilience and our culture of coping. The work draws from my personal neurodivergent experience; like many others on the autism spectrum, I sense my surroundings intensely and with overwhelming focus on details. With Gravity Blanket, I bring this experience into the center of my artistic work as a subject matter as well as a method. I let my sensitivities inform the material choices in my work and search for an embodied ‘autistic knowledge’ that guides me in my process. My aim is to disrupt neuronormative concepts of wellness and illness, agency and interpersonal and visual communication. While the photographic pieces explore the possibility of a neuroqueer gaze – one that can wander freely from detail to detail, allowing for unfixed production of meanings –, the installation and sculpture pieces have a more formal and material connection to the everyday realities of neurodivergent life. The name piece, Gravity Blanket (2021), takes the form of a weighted blanket, a common wellness product which was originally developed as an aid for neuropsychiatric care. Light and see-through but filled with carefully sewn-in shattered glass, the blanket depicts complex realities of neurodivergent coping.” The work was exhibited at Titanik gallery (Turku, Finland) in August 2021.


More art by this artist

Photography

 Artworks from installation Gravity Blanket: Hand dyed silk in green and pink by Inari Sandell
Artworks from installation Gravity Blanket: Hand dyed silk in green and pink  
82 x 60 cm
Artworks from installation Gravity Blanket. Frayed polyester chiffon in green and fingers by Inari Sandell
Artworks from installation Gravity Blanket. Frayed polyester chiffon in green and fingers  
135 x 100 cm
Hand dyed silk in green, blue and purple by Inari Sandell
Hand dyed silk in green, blue and purple  
82 x 60 cm
Soft tulle in teal and pink by Inari Sandell
Soft tulle in teal and pink  
72 x 100 cm

Installation

 Artworks from installation Gravity Blanket: Triggers by Inari Sandell
Artworks from installation Gravity Blanket: Triggers  
15 x 15 cm
Gravity Blanket by Inari Sandell
Gravity Blanket  
215 x 150 cm