The Yellow Wallpaper
20′ x 25′
Yarn
2020
2020 Visiting Artist
Artist Statement
The Yellow Wallpaper is the title of a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that describes the author’s mental illness and the “domestic cure” she is forced to endure where the yellow wallpaper of her bedroom becomes the catalyst for further mental decline. The individual crochet motifs are known as pineapples, and this traditional crochet motif usually represents welcome. Their distortion hints at another meaning and the color yellow has often been described as the color of insanity. I reflect on it often as I grew up in a house painted yellow throughout and the colors of this piece were the colors of my childhood bedroom. During the lockdown of Covid, I have spent months at home undergoing my own seeming “domestic cure” and the unsettled feelings I’ve experienced are reflected in this piece. It is my greatest hope that the mention of Covid and the anxiety of the time in which I made this artwork will seem like a distant memory when the piece is eventually taken down.
Ashley Blalock
Born: San Diego, CA, USA, 1978
Resides: San Diego, CA, USA
Education
2012 MFA, Sculpture, San Francisco Art Institute
2009 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
2005 MA, Art History, University of California, Riverside
2000 BA, Painting and Printmaking, San Diego State University