| Initially I felt quite negative about
producing work under the 'Necrotex' label. Death as a theme seemed so
personal and maybe not somewhere I wanted to go. However thoughts of the
exhibition prayed on my mind, I wanted to take part but I felt more inclined
to flip the theme of death over and look at life instead. Textiles surround
us from birth when we are wrapped in a blanket throughout life in the
form of clothing, bedding, furnishings and decorations through to the
dressing of a body after death and this was the theme I found interesting.
I found inspiration for making this hanging from an article in Selvedge
magazine. The article talked of the recycling of cotton in Japan and the
way a garment would be reworked using scraps of cotton from other garments
many times over....'the process of de-constructing, re-working, layering,
stitching, reinforcing and casting -off was a continuous and ongoing process.'
Thus a garment would contain scraps of parents, grandparents, great grandparents
clothes all stitched in together. Now these assembled pieces of cloth
have been discovered as 'art' and they are often exhibited inside-out...'We
admire the hidden side, the interior, the part that was never meant to
be seen.'
My hanging is a patchwork of the scraps of fabrics which I keep for no
real reason, they all tell me a story ....there are old sheets that my
Nanna turned sides to middle 25 (50?) years ago, the kitchen towel I bought
when I first set up home with my husband, his old shirts, cotton bandages,
bits of my children's clothes, dress making leftovers: mine and some passed
to me by my sisters over the years ... all joined together in overlapping
patches and linked with plain running stitches using utilitarian threads.
The 'right side' seemed much too jolly and so to evoke a feeling of distance
from the inherent life in this rag bag of patches I have turned it around,
it's now viewed from the other side, the wrong side....allowing the colours
of the fabrics and shapes of the patches to be seen through the backing
of loose woven linen. The lines of stitches can be read as footpaths between
different patches, different times, different places. Where the backing
has been cut and darned, little windows allow flashes of colour (life)
to shine through. Hanging from the bottom are tassels made up of all those
really useful little snips of fabric I kept, supported with buttons from
old shirts.
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