For There She Was, Her 1
Embroidered mixed-media collage || paper, fabric, and thread || 29.7 x 42.0 cm or 11.69 x 16.53 inches
The title of this series, For There She Was, comes from the last line of Virginia Woolf ‘s “Mrs. Dalloway.” The series emerged from thinking about all the women who are currently speaking out about their pain and trauma and are refusing to go away.
To summarize this moment, I brewed natural dyes in my kitchen using organic materials and then dyed small scraps of fabric (a cloth baby diaper, an antique tablecloth, a stained tea towel…) to represent the physicality of womanhood and gender roles. I matched the fabrics with small paper dolls that are actually digitally edited photographs from clothing catalogs to show the commodification and manipulation of women’s stories. To deliberately erase the women, I burned holes in the photographs and repeatedly stitched over their faces and bodies. Yet the women are still there. Their presence is even stronger.