Summary
Chelsea Parkinson’s work highlights her multidisciplinary practice exploring interspecies connection and the parallels between natural structures and human emotion. Her project The Delicacy of Life focuses on handwoven spider webs constructed from cotton thread. Through these delicate, process-driven works, Parkinson reflects on fragility, resilience, and the quiet systems that sustain life, inviting viewers to consider interconnectedness within the natural world.
THE DELICACY OF LIFE
Chelsea Parkinson’s practice investigates interconnection between species, exploring how the structures and gestures of the natural world can mirror human emotion, behaviour, and vulnerability. Working across painting, drawing, sculpture, and textile-based installation, her work often draws from quiet moments of observation — the way a spider builds its web, how light moves through thread, or how fragility can become a site of strength. Through these studies, Parkinson considers how making can operate as both a meditative and communicative act, bridging the gap between human and non-human experience.
The Delicacy of Life focuses on spider webs as both structural and symbolic forms. Each web is meticulously handwoven from beeswax-coated cotton thread or strung with resin droplets that imitate caught rain.
The process is slow and repetitive, requiring precision and care, yet remains open to imperfection and chance. The resulting works appear delicate and ethereal, yet they speak to endurance, tension, and repair — qualities shared by the natural systems they reference.
While this project refines one thread of her broader practice, it reflects a continuing interest in the dialogue between fragility and resilience, order and entropy. Through the act of weaving, Parkinson examines the subtle architectures that sustain life and invites viewers to encounter stillness, attention, and interconnectedness within the delicate structures of her making.
chelseaparkinsonart.com
instagram.com/chelseaparkinsonart