Erin M. Riley's Intimate Fiber Art Explores Body, Love, and Sexuality

Erin M. Riley, a 36-year-old fiber artist from Cape Cod, creates textile works based on selfies that depict her body in intimate and often sexually explicit situations. Her pieces, woven in wool and cotton, feature menstrual blood, used condoms, syringes, guns, rolls of banknotes, and pornographic screens. Riley holds degrees from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the Tyler School of Art. Her work is described as a raw, punk-inspired self-analysis that oscillates between tenderness and fear, reflecting a generational crisis of affection and narcissism. The article, published on Artribune Magazine #61, questions whether these images are erotic or autoerotic, and suggests a broader crisis of love in contemporary society.