WAR: A Personal Response, Body of Work, 'Grief Redacted'

Grief Redacted

Vintage linen tablecloth, cotton thread; hand embroidered.

For my installation in Articulation's 'WAR: A Personal Response' exhibition I have recreated my grandmother's living room to reflect her mental state during WWI, WWII and the following years. I believe she suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) most of her adult life. The room I have created tells her story.

Grief Redacted is a tablecloth laid on a table set for tea. The colour of the embroidery chronicles her decline into PTSD.

Stitching on a boat.

The cloth chronicles my grandmother Florence's life so I decided to make it a part of my life. I took it with me where ever I went and worked on it whenever I could.

Stitching on the Coho ferry en route to the USA.

Stitching on a riverboat in the Malaysian Highlands.

PTSD symptoms unrecognized and untreated can be passed on to future generations. Florence's great-granddaughter Elizabeth added her stitches to the cloth. In total nine of Florence's descendants worked on the cloth to illustrate the wide-ranging and long-term effects of PTSD within a family.

The brightly coloured flowers reflect Florence's happy relationship with her high school sweetheart until he headed off to war. The flowers turn black from worry as she waited. After his joyful return, their marriage and the births of their 4 sons, the colour returned to flowers. Following the tragedy of her "shell-shocked" husband committing suicide, three sons joining the Air Force and the oldest son dying in a plane crash, she stitched only in black. Guided by her religion, bound by nationalistic cries of 'for God and country' and deep down being tormented by humanist feelings of guilt and shame, Florence suffered from PTSD as the battle raged within her home.

Links to works by other Articulation artists in the 'WAR: A Personal Response' exhibition:

Donna Clement here

Wendy Klotz here

Amanda Onchulenko here

VISDA Current Threads 2017 Exhibition in Ladysmith BC

The annual Vancouver Island Surface Design Association Currents Threads exhibition will open on April 15 and run until April 30, 2017.

This year the group is returning to the Ladysmith Waterfront Gallery, Ladysmith. 

All of the work will have been completed in the last 3 years and has not been shown in any Current Threads exhibition before.

We are anticipating another successful exhibition with many visitors.

The Artist Reception is on April 22, from 2:00 until 4:00 pm. I do hope many of you can attend to enjoy the work and talk to the artists in attendance.

Artists will be sitting the gallery every day from 11 am until 4 pm.

During Ladysmith's Spring Art Tour on April 21st until 23rd, the gallery hours are extended from 10 am until 5 pm.

This annual exhibition is a survey of the most recent work by fibre artists who live on Vancouver Island and many of the smaller offshore islands.

You are all invited to attend.

New Work: Responding to Trees with Stitch

This work began with a cloth that was buried in the soil beside a Douglas-fir tree. Before the cloth began to decay I dug it up.

It was now my turn to respond to the cloth. 

I liked the bits of leaves stuck to the cloth so stitched over some of them to hold them in place.

Now it was the tree's turn to respond. 

When the cloth was dry I stretched it on a hoop and waited for a windy day. When that day arrived I raced out and tied a little paintbrush to the end of a branch. I dipped the brush into a bottle of ink then held the hooped cloth up to the brush. While the wind blew the branch around the ink-filled brush drew on the cloth - a wind drawing.

Now it was my turn to respond again.

It was time for me to add more stitch to respond to the tree's wind drawing.

The cloth needed a backing to support the stitching I had in mind.

I selected a bedsheet stained during its time wrapped around the trunk of the tree.

I found another unstained bedsheet to give a firmer cloth to stitch into.

I trialled different bedsheets to get enough contrast between the 3 cloths. Even though the colours are soft and subtle, contrast between the different cloths is still needed. 

I used my camera to take black and white photographs to check the value contrast between the different sheets before I settled on this combination.

I wanted to show the little branchlets that break off the Douglas-fir tree during a wind storm.

I went though my large bin of 'white' thread to find just the right ones.

I went outside to find one of these branchlets and made lots of drawings of it until my hands knew the angle at which the needles came out of the branch.

Next, I stitched some samples, trialling different stitch combinations. I settled on a made-up version of couching though no doubt someone somewhere has invented this stitch before. I call it a long-armed couching stitch.

Now I have to settle down and stitch every day to make sure I keep the rhythm going and keep remembering my intention with this work.

Things Textiley in Greece: Fibres and Fabrics - Old and New

Goats on the road, every afternoon - milking time. 

The huge variety of goat cheeses and other dairy products was a gourmet's delight while travelling around Greece. Each village seems to have its own bacterial cultures producing distinctively different cheeses. It was the same with the many different fermented drinks. The fermented honey mead drink served warm on a cold rainy day was my favourite.

I was reminded of how standardized and limited the range of the bulk of commercially available food has become in North America.

Goat meat dishes were on the menu in most places and in the antique shops, I saw many goat hair textiles, often combined with wool. I suspect the goat has been a key item in the Greek economy for centuries.

The oldest textile in Greece has been found in the Church of Saint Sophia.

These ribbons were made between the 2nd half of the 14th century and up to the 1st half of the 16th century. Using gilded silver threads and metal beads they were woven on a tablet loom and embroidered in satin stitch.

Processing Silk

Local silk production went on during the Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods - 320AD to the 1800s.

Notice the elegant Kelpht guard watching over the work.

'Metaxi present and past'

A new textile installation. The title plays with the 2 meanings of metaxi - 'silk' and 'between'.

It refers to the "unknown princess" whose clothing and hair was found when her grave in the church of Saint Sophia was excavated. 

Currently on display in the Museum of Mystras are her silk undergarment and her silk outer garment, remnants of her leather shoes and her hair still tied up and decorated in a variety of silk laces. These silk garments plus the history of silk production was the inspiration for this contemporary art installation. 'The 3D arrangement of yarns form linear patterns and reshapes the structure of the dress, reconstructing an immaterial and ethereal female figure.'

'By using yarn as a raw material, the weaving of a cultural bridge is achieved. A bridge that connects notionally the historical weaving position of women in the development of history and cultural meaning through a colourful path between past and present.'

The history of Greek textiles is long and interwoven with every aspect their culture.

Things Textiley in Greece: Peloponnese Peninsula Traditional Costumes

Vocha, Corinthia, Greece, early 20th century

Layers of wool and cotton heavily embroidered. Silver ornament.

Belesi, Argolid, Greece, early 20th century

The heavily embroidered red vest is all the more eye-catching when worn with the white over-vest.

The many different types of embroidery reflect the many outside influences over Greece's long history.

Turkish influences in style, techniques and materials.

Both men's and women's garments were densely embroidered...

....while in some areas they were elegantly simple.

Women's costume from Hydra in the 20th century.

The wide -sleeved blouse with the fitted, woollen, embroidered jacket are elements seen in the current Evzone guard uniform I looked at in the previous post.

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Man's dress 'Kanavista' of the Argolid plain, Peloponnese, early 20th century.

I'm sorry about the quality of this image because I just love this garment.

It looks simple but close inspection shows the masterful use of a plaid material. 

The padded areas over the shoulders and across the chest and the ease of movement allowed by the pleated skirt suggest it is derived from a working garment or a garment worn in battle.

And I thought different coloured buttons on a garment was a contemporary thing.

The many layers of multi-directional pieces would add strength and warmth to the fabric

Bridal costume, Argos, Peloponnese, 19th century

This is an interesting bridal costume because it showcases so many different fabrics, embroidery techniques and threads all on one garment.

Apron: Appliqued ribbon, rick rack and lace.

Pin tucks, lace inserts and ribbon rosettes.

Machine made.

Cross stitch on cotton and woollen fabrics.

Blackwork in running stitches and whitework using satin stitches.

Densely worked wool on wool in a variety of stitches.

Hand embroidered.

Is the bride showcasing her embroidery and dressmaking skills?

Modern Greeks dressed to be outside for a cold winter's afternoon on a public holiday.

Things Textiley in Greece - 12 Parts of the Greek Evzone Guard Uniform

Here is one of those pesky tourists standing beside one of the famed Greek Evzone - guards of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the president's mansion, dressed in his Sunday uniform.

To join this elite division of guards one has to be over 6' 1.3"/1.87m tall.

The guard's uniform evolved from the Klephts' traditional clothing. 

The Klephts were Greeks who avoided Turkish rule by escaping to live in the rugged mountains. While surviving as thieves they formed the core of the resistance to the Ottoman occupation of Greece and with Greek independence became national heroes. 

Costumes in the Nafplion Museum.

Of the 12 parts of the uniform, the most striking and symbolic is the kilt-like skirt - the fustanella. Made of a 98'/30m length of cotton, each soldier irons in 400 pleats then his partner helps him to belt it to his waist. The 400 pleats symbolise the 400 years the Greeks endured Ottoman occupation.

The blue and white waist fringe, also held in place by the belt, are colours symbolising the modern Greek nation, the colours also in the national flag.

Over a white cotton long-sleeved shirt is worn another white shirt - the ypodetes - with its very wide long sleeves that billow out as the soldier marches.

The scarlet, wool fez - the farion - has a long black silk tassel. The soldier's aim is to hold his body upright while marching to avoid tangling the silk tassel.

The waistcoat - the fermeli - is densely hand embroidered wool. Traditional designs are worked in white and gilt thread. One of the coded messages in the embroidery is the military rank of the wearer.

Silk tassel garters, 2 types - the epiksclides and the anaspastos -  hold in place 2 pairs of white woollen stockings - the periskclides.

A rifle with a bayonet is part of the uniform.

The red, leather clogs - the tsarouchia - have a pointed toe adorned with a black pompom. One source says the pompom is to keep water out of the hand sewn join where the 3 pieces of leather meet at the toe. It is also known as a place to hide a small blade.

Each clog has 60 nails embedded in the sole and a horseshoe-like metal plate on the heel. Apart from making the clogs very heavy, up to 7 lbs, the nails help the soldier from slipping on the stone tiles. As a group of soldiers raise their right legs high then strike the ground forcefully with their clogs it is said to make a sound of war.

This year our family holiday was spent in Greece.

'Earth Repair' - 3 Years Later

2014

3 years 3 months after the emergency while living outside wrapped around the Indian plum I brought the 3 afternoon tea cloths inside. 

They were carefully washed, dried and ironed. I was hoping the laundering had stopped the decay processes.

There is much staining and decay and large holes had appeared.

How to preserve this cloth? The usual way to repair a cloth is to darn it but the whole cloth is in such a fragile state didn't think it would support darning. Another way to repair cloth is to add a patch. When I thought about it, adding patches is the way the soil is repaired each year. Leaves fall from plants and trees and cover the soil. Organic processes work on breaking down the leaves to return them to the soil.

I was thinking about this soil repair idea when while out on a walk I noticed the Tulip tree had a skirt of leaves reflecting the shape if its branches. It was using its leaves to replenish the soil it grows in.

I looked more closely at those fallen leaves and saw the majority had decayed in such a way that only the veins were left. They were leaf skeletons.

I collected them up and soaked them in water to remove the soil and pine needles.

I left them to dry.

They are quite lovely in their fragile state. I had this idea to repair the tea cloth with these fragile leaves. I hand stitched leaves directly onto the cloth over the holes. At the top of the cloth I stitched a row of eyelets, wove a jute string through them and inserted a stick I found near the Tulip Tree. 

The cloth hung on my design wall for the year, still too delicate to do anything with.

2015

When the Tulip tree was dropping its leaves again the next year made me look again at the still fragile afternoon tea cloth.

I wanted to add more leaves but I wanted to make the skeletons stronger while still appearing fragile. It was time to sample. I coated leaves with various mediums but they tended to fill the holes and look a bit shiny. I ironed on a fine fusible web. I liked the look.  

I added the bonded leaves but I couldn't iron them in place. I decided to machine sew them in place using the finest thread I had with the finest needle.  I liked what was happening and decided to add another layer of leaf skeletons next fall.

 

2016

I added another layer of bonded leaves using a combination of hand and machine stitching.

The cloth with its leaves was stronger looking but getting very dried out and brittle. I added a thin layer of liquid Min Wax. I thought this last effort had ruined the whole thing. It was shiny and stinky and ugly. I just left it hanging thinking I would throw it away when I got around to it.

But one day it caught my eye because it had taken on a transparent glow and the layers of leaves were more visible giving an interesting depth. And it wasn't stinky anymore. 

I was going to add yet another layer of leaves until it got accepted into the World of Threads Festival. Once our work is accepted we have to promise the work shipped will be exactly the same as the images we sent in with the application. 

I can add the next layer of leaves after it returns home.

PS This is what the Indian plum tree looks like fall 2016

Still alive...

...but the bark doesn't look very healthy where the deer ate it.

The fungus growth on the middle trunk indicates the tree is dying.

Maybe the deer knew the tree was old and on its way out.