The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

The imagery in Erin M. Riley’s tapestries is sourced from analogue and online media sources. The wools are hand dyed and woven on a floor loom. Appraising politicized themes, gender and sexuality, violence and vulnerability, intimacy and recovery, her latest body of work, made during the 2020 Covid lockdown, negotiates on- and off-line relationships. In Webcam 2, Riley composed a scene about desire and voyeurism. Space is collapsed through optical play, weaving together overlapping perspectives from the webcam on an open laptop to a mirror image that looks back at us. The pleasures of viewing and being observed instantaneously slide as reality pivots to fantasy.