picking up the thread

 

dark curve - cells breathing, digital animation, 2022

The origin of this mixed media work can be found in 2006 during my recuperation from brain surgery. I had had a meningioma removed. I was constantly fatigued and unable to work. I could not read with comprehension nor could I concentrate on films or television, screens were intolerable.

At some point I decided to sew a lining into a bag and, to my surprise, the activity brought a strange calm. I produced perfect, near invisible stitches with a never before experienced patience and dexterity. After the bag came a fringed scarf and any mending I could find. It occurred to me that I might unify the experience by making an embroidery based on brain tumour cells. I gathered images and materials and began.

As my normal brain function returned my interest in tiny stitches failed and I put the embroidery aside to finish later.  Sixteen years later I picked up the thread to see where it might lead.

 

an early drawing

 

original unfinished embroidery, 2006, 36cm x 24cm and detail (photograph, 2022) 

 

detail: reconstruction, 2022, dimensions variable, rope, paint, cord, pins and photograph

 

the following images:  installation at Articulate Project Space, Leichhardt, Sydney, November, 2022 as part of Failure. (a group exhibition with Therese Briggs, Billy Crawford, Isobel Johnston, Clache Raong and Sue Murray)