Kristi Poole-Adler

No One Likes You, 2023
Speed Dating, 2023
New Low, 2024

My practice consists of text-based fibre works that draw from personal interactions using popular online dating apps to explore identity, intimacy, vulnerability, shame, and connection within romantic relationships. Speaking to a generation that communicates almost entirely online, I critically examine screen fatigue as our everyday life becomes attention-centric and streams of content become limitless, like a 24-hour buffet. The addictive yet tedious practice of browsing from profile to profile fails to offer users any real sense of connection. Instead, it requires one person to message another, speaking in vague flirtatious code, and employing the visual language of emojis to communicate a false sense of intimacy. Internet personas can often be seen as superficial and impersonal, the immediate flow of content can be distracting and short, and communication with others online may dissuade one from meeting face-to-face. 

I employ handcrafts, which naturally create a quiet, contemplative, and meditative space due to their time-consuming nature, to allow time for slowness – to be thoughtful and intentional with each step of the making process, and to enable a state where time seems to almost stand still. Through the tactility of the soft, cozy, and handmade, I use touch as a way to speak further about my fear of intimacy while exploring questions such as: Can the screen mediate our interactions and foster meaningful connections? What do we lose or gain from virtual communication?

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Kristi Poole-Adler is an interdisciplinary artist from Whistler BC, Canada. Her practice investigates the semiotics of language through ideas of intimacy, relationships, and the human experience in the form of text(tiles). Kristi holds a BFA with honours from the University of Alberta and an MFA in the Interdisciplinary Master’s in Art Media and Design program from OCAD University. Her work has been exhibited in group shows in Canada and internationally. Kristi has been a resident at Artscape Gibraltar place (Toronto, Canada), The Icelandic Textile Center (Blönduós, Iceland) and Kunstkollektivet 8B (Nykøbing, Denmark). She holds grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields foundation in 2017 and Canada Council for the Arts in 2023 and 2024. 

@noinstikristi