see how we are
We hurt and help each other. Garments are intimately connected to us, a second skin. Clothing mediates our physical and emotional experiences while absorbing our internal reactions and the influences of the world around us.
In textile, like the body, we stitch to reconnect what is damaged. Repeated acts of stitching tend wounds. I dissect garments and piece the parts together into a new whole. Using historic mending techniques, I weave new cloth into the holes, and suture cuts. These interventions leave scars.
Scars are new skin (or cloth), evidence of the damage we caused, attempts to heal the wounds, and the pain and hope that are elemental parts of relationships.
“see how we are 1-4” were started in September 2023 while I was in the Studioworks residency at the Tides Institute and Museum of Art in Eastport, Maine. They are composed of suits, shirts, and bits of fabric from local thrift stores and surplus stores. I dissected the suits and shirts along the seams where they were sewn together and collaged the parts together. These new collages were then cut into and the holes mended with Colonial Era American and European mending techniques. Some areas are also embroidered.
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