Cindy Baker

b. 1975, Leduc, Alberta, Canada

Cindy Baker is a fat activist and queer rights advocate based in Western Canada who frequently uses craft to skew ideals concerning beauty, gender and sexuality, art, and value.

Her series Welcome Mats (1997–2007) employs latch hooking—an artistic medium used primarily by amateurs—for its subversive potential. In her words, she creates “welcome mats for the not necessarily welcome. Just as actual welcome mats cannot be taken to mean that anyone standing upon the doorstep is welcome within, my welcome mats should not be taken to mean literally what they say.” Baker exploits the ambiguity of what artist and cultural theorist Allyson Mitchell has referred to as “abandoned craft” to express and explore alterity.