The World Will Remember
February 2024Hand-dyed cotton fabric, embroidery, beading
Artist statement
My work explores the power in vulnerability by experimenting with and calling attention to traditionally delicate techniques in fibers including embroidery, hand-dyeing, and papermaking. I question the medium to develop work that makes ironic yet careful and pointed use of material and form.
In my self-portrait “The World Will Remember,” I break the line of the traditionally 2D process of embroidery with couching and beading as a claim of power and renewed identity. I contrast the delicacy of a portrait being held together by nothing but thread with the power in stitching yourself as you wish
the world to perceive you. This process of embroidery saw me personify the fabric that I meticulously, purposely, and permanently stained by hand to resemble my skin. I represented myself through repeated puncturing and pulling — and across the back that no one sees of messy knots and criss-crossed threads that found their way eventually.
My work draws on these themes of found and sculpted identity in the wake of trauma such as assault through continued research in embroidery, appliqué, and papermaking in 2D and 3D forms.
In my self-portrait “The World Will Remember,” I break the line of the traditionally 2D process of embroidery with couching and beading as a claim of power and renewed identity. I contrast the delicacy of a portrait being held together by nothing but thread with the power in stitching yourself as you wish
the world to perceive you. This process of embroidery saw me personify the fabric that I meticulously, purposely, and permanently stained by hand to resemble my skin. I represented myself through repeated puncturing and pulling — and across the back that no one sees of messy knots and criss-crossed threads that found their way eventually.
My work draws on these themes of found and sculpted identity in the wake of trauma such as assault through continued research in embroidery, appliqué, and papermaking in 2D and 3D forms.