Inspired by the notion of blikfang, a Danish word meaning ‘eye-trap', Keith investigates her ongoing enthraldom with objects both old and new, creating installations that include t-shirts, handmade textiles, 20th century art and antiques.

Throughout her installation series, Keith consciously employs the concept of blikfang by playing with specific eye-catching materials: glass, wirework, mirrors, pressed brass alongside beadwork, knitted wool and remnants of tapestry. Assembled together in often unexpected combinations, these installations invite the viewer to pause and delight in the materiality of objects. As Keith writes, she wants the viewer "to meditate on the fact that mirrors reflect, that glass shatters and wirework corrodes".

 

Intertwined with their visual pull are the historical and personal associations materials can evoke. Keith encourages an awareness of these connotations, creating an atmosphere filled with potentially visually and emotionally charged objects. By trapping and holding the viewer's eye, Blikfang provokes a recollection of the various sentiments that we attach to the assortment of objects assembled.

Sheridan Keith, Artefact to Detect the Glint of Envy (detail), 2012.