Richard McVetis

Richard McVetis

Richard’s practice is deeply rooted in the process of hand embroidery. He records time and space through multiples of dots, lines, and crosses. These meticulously rendered stitches reflect a preoccupation with the repetitive nature of process. He explores the subtle differences that emerge through ritualistic and habitual making. The inscribed stitches mark the hand’s rhythms, the delicate performance of obsessive intricacy, refinement, and gesture. They record human presence, time and decay with each stitch acting as a marker of time, an embodiment of thought and patience. These physical, tactile, and repetitive modes of creation allow him the time to see and think and to occupy a space.

His works are created during a predetermined or durational period, a premise that gives the work a performance quality, although executed in private. However, these enforced restrictions of time and location mean that the work is subject to chance; in this way, he is but one of the variables contributing to the work.

Drawing as an act occurs in everything he creates. Drawing as a dialogue, a focus that goes beyond the flat surface and into the space around. The objects and structures he creates compose and draw in space, and with each architectural setting creating a new relationship.