Binghamton-based artist and poet Anna Warfield creates text-based fiber sculptures in order to consider identity and how we communicate through words both spoken and unspoken. Her work revolves around plush letterforms spelling out words and phrases that are often as prickly as her materials are soft and yielding. Warfield delights in the slippage between words and their meanings, leaving her viewers to read between the lines. Sculptures that appear at first glance to be about comfort reveal, upon closer examination, layers that address gender roles, queer identity, and the eternally fraught nature of human communication.

Relearning Play is built around the elements of Warfield’s work that speak to language learning during childhood—a time when books and games are inextricable from language itself. For many, the challenges of communicating as an adult strip away the fun and playful elements of language, leaving anxiety and uncertainty in their wake. Warfield’s sculptures remove the high stakes and risk from communication, instead allowing viewers to reconnect with the joy that comes from playing with words.