Kirsten Doogue

Inspired by 17th-century embroidered caskets, Kirsten Doogue’s Lost and Found applies that storytelling tradition to a life winding through countries, disciplines, and identities. This self-portrait begins with symbolism and continues to unfold with hidden compartments and both obscured and overt text.

The casket boldly proclaims, “Lose the Path. Find Your Way,” inviting the viewer to follow the circuitous routes of the vines originating from an ornate urn. Animals rest among the lush and diverse flora, each embodying a facet of her nature. A dragon on the lid sits apart, fierce and singular, an acknowledgment that a life often resists classification.

Needlelace lets petals and leaves shift pattern and colour mid-construction, rising from their own foundation like an unfolding narrative. It is one of over thirty techniques worked in more than twenty distinct materials. Skills and medium come together in her casket like mementos in a curio cabinet, each item and detail a vestige of her journey.

The design is dated beside a memento mori, a reminder that time is the truest limit. Completion here is not an ending. The casket still holds room, like a story anticipating its sequel, a life unfinished, its secrets beckoning the patient explorer.