Imagination Bound is the second chapter of artwork made by Charlotte Leeder.

‘I made the artwork in Imagination Bound over a three year period whilst living in the west of Ireland. The work is a deep dive into the territory of evolution. It explores various responses to our animal nature and our aspirations as a species to supersede our evolutionary capacity beyond physical limits. Lines are traced through the strange web of spirituality where flight has come to embody transcendence.

Connections are made between spiritual transcendence and evolutionary downfall. Questions are asked about whether we know the measure of ourselves, what we are in body, bone and through time.

The work is handled with equal regard given to creativity, death and wonder.

Ultimately we are bound to our imagination.

When I made this work it was before the widespread emergence of the concept of the anthropocene. This concept underlies the profound shift from an understanding that nature draws our future to humanity shaping and rendering our planet unliveable.  This shift visibly haunts the work but is not fully embodied in the imaginative scope of it. How we make this shift in consciousness in a single lifetime, a few short decades, will define the fabric of life ahead.

The work came to a close in 2006 with the birth of my daughter who brought a new chapter of wonder beyond the bones and monofilament washed ashore.

Imagination Bound is an intuitive exploration in the dimensions of drawing, textiles, found flotsam, china and shoes, sculpture, paper making using old books and black and white 35mm photography. It was made during a period of study at the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology between 2003 – 2006.

Previous textile work can be seen at https://islandtapestry.wordpress.com/

This site documents my tapestry weaving made on Sherkin Island, Co Cork from 1990 onwards.

Current work can be seen at rebubblion.org

This is the third chapter of my creative story.

Rebubblion is about the play and power of words, creative books, the language of drawing, happiness of colour and more wonder and reverence for the wild world. Most of all it is about listening to children and responding to their wish and demand for a future.