Emily Hermant






















Thumbpins

Site-based installation at the Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON
Approximately 70,000 dressmakers pins in drywall, 120” x 84” x 1 1/2”, 2007


Thumbpins is a site-based installation at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, featuring an 8' by 11' rendering of the artist's thumbprint composed of over 70,000 dressmaker's pins inserted directly into the hotel room wall. This large-scale work addresses themes of identity, mark-making, and the physical strain of repetitive hand labor, especially as it relates to textile work. The thumbprint evokes ideas of mapping and tracking, with shadows shifting across its surface as daylight moves through the space. After the installation was dismantled, the wall was left covered in pinholes, serving as residual traces of the intensive labor process and a performative mark on the space.





Photography by Roz Hermant


©2024

emilyhermant @ gmail.com
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