Cut Series, 2023
Acrylic, cut and torn canvas, cut and pasted papers, collage with clothespins

Exhibited in Naples, Italy

Upon arriving in Naples in 2023, Sykes did not have access to her supplies. She bought a canvas without certainty of what to do with it, and the idea arose to cut into it with a knife. To hold it in place she used clothespins, a ubiquitous element seen on Naples’ streets, synonymous with women’s domestic labor, and the blurred boundaries between private and public domains. Translating her gestural language into a more dimensional process, and invoking elements of chance, Sykes peeled and folded the canvases into a variety of organic forms and colors.