Ashleigh Barnes

Feature Wall

March 3–May 9, 2026

Opening reception: Saturday, February 28, 5pm-7pm

Queen’s undergraduate student Ashleigh Barnes presents Dwelling in Delusion on Union Gallery’s Feature Wall. Concerned with increasing economic precarity and conditions that make home ownership feel like a distant reality, Barnes leans into feminized labour and DIY culture through fibre art as grassroots forms of care and resistance. Join us for a parallel workshop series throughout the month of March.

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ARTIST STATEMENT

Dwelling in Delusion responds to the housing precarity intensified by late-stage capitalism and the overwhelming social and environmental instability that accompanies it. For my generation, home ownership feels increasingly unattainable, perhaps even impossible. Through craft and play, I translate that economic impossibility into an act of imaginative making. If I cannot afford a house, perhaps I can stitch one.

In this work, I transform a pajama set into the home of my wildest dreams, a modest two bedroom with a garden. The softness of sleepwear becomes the foundation for a house built from scarcity and desire, connecting domestic space to dreaming, rest, and escape. The wearable dollhouse operates as both refuge and critique, a childlike fantasy that exposes the fragility of the systems we have inherited, including settler colonial notions of ownership and property.

There is escapism here, but also inquiry. Imagination can be a trauma response, a way to survive overwhelm, yet it cannot replace material security. Through slow hand stitching, mending, and secondhand materials, I engage feminist craft traditions that value care, repair, and resistance. The work exists in tension between survival and illusion, asking when dreaming sustains us and when it becomes delusion.

ASHLEIGH BARNES

I grew up in Australia and moved to Canada after finishing high school. While I have always been drawn to making, I found crochet during the isolation of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Crochet offered a quiet, repetitive practice that became a grounding force and a catalyst for my fibre-based work. Since then, my practice has expanded to include knitting, felting, embroidery, garment design, mending, and the repurposing of existing materials. I like to work slowly and attentively with textiles as both material and method, allowing time, care, and repair to remain visible within the finished work.

During my undergraduate studies in Environmental Studies, my art has shaped my academic thinking as much as my studies have shaped my art. I find myself depending on craft for grounding, comfort and companionship. The interdisciplinary nature of my degree, spanning biology, development studies, geography, art history, and religion, has given me language for relationships I had long felt but not yet named. Feminisms and environmentalism, in my work, are not parallel concerns but deeply interwoven ways of understanding care, responsibility, and resistance.

PARALLEL PROGRAMS

Free-For-All Art Supply Swap (Craft Edition!)
Wednesday, March 11, 5pm-7pm
Drop-in event, no RSVP required

Do you have art supplies sitting around unused/unloved/neglected? Come find them a new home with friends in the community! This time, we're focusing on craft supplies, some of which will be repurposed for Ashleigh Barnes' workshops later this month.

Craft Circle (Slumber Party Theme!) w. Ashleigh Barnes
Wednesday, March 18, 6pm-8pm
Registration required

We're throwing a pyjama party! Join us for a relaxed and welcoming evening focused on creativity, conversation, and connection. Whether you knit, collage, sew, or felt, feel free to bring a craft and unwind. Facilitated by Dwelling in Delusion artist Ashleigh Barnes.

Ribbon-Making Workshop w. Ashleigh Barnes
Wednesday, March 25, 6pm-8pm
Registration required

Come and craft with us! Spend the evening creating in a space centered around care—for the environment, ourselves, and each other. This session with Ashleigh Barnes will be focused on self-love, affirmations, and wearable art, transforming everyday items into cute, fashionable ribbons.

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Stay tuned for more information about this exhibition and parallel programs in March!

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EXHIBITIONS + PROGRAMS