Maps, part 3, 2009

Somehow, I should be able to merge maps and clothing to represent who we really are: person and place, our physical being and what we're thinking. I keep trying to combine clothing and architecture, too - the idea of constructing ourselves. I keep attempting this, and have never truly succeeded - yet. These three pieces are based on my grandmother, my mother and myself. In each case, the apron-figure is overlaid with a map, a place that is entwined and stitched to the person.

Apron Excavation (50"h x 36"w)

I had dyed an apron dark brown, then rolled it, still-wet, into a white tablecloth. This gave me a print. Then I sewed it over layers of wool which had been cut to represent the streets of Warsaw. My grandmother came from Poland, I don't know where, so I improvised and just used a very stylized map of Warsaw. (If I was actually able to find a map of her town, it would probably only have one road).

Apron Excavation #2 (50"h x 36")

Another print of the brown apron, a bit lighter, and cut out of the tablecloth. My mother was born and raised in Bayonne, NJ, and those (very stylized) streets imprison her apron figure.

Her pockets are full of the minutiae and religion that made up her life.

Apron Excavation #3 (50"h x 36"w)

Here's the actual apron that was printed on the other 2 maps. Here, the section of Passaic where I live has been mapped onto my apron figure. The green (vaguely boot-shaped) section is the local park. And while my life is made of the same minutiae as my mother's, it has more color, and a lot more freedom. 

Maps, part 2, 2009I

Orientation (22"h x 22"w)

Old kitchen calendar towels are such great bits of history: the year and months are represented in whatever style was popular at the time. Some are worn half to death and others are still stiff with starch. The findings from many garage sales were dyed a variety of colors, then used for the layout of streets (based on a vintage city map). The dark background is a dyed damask napkin. The days and months orient to the seasons, not the usual compass points. Which seems a perfect map of memories, as we each struggle to remember the where and when of long-ago events. 

The tiny pink patches are phases of the moon.

Distribution Pattern of Imported Textiles (20"h x 15"w)

This was one of those stitching-on-the-road pieces. It began as just an accumulation of tiny patches, but it quickly evolved into a map-design. Not a map of any actual place, but mapping the old pattern of how goods would be delivered by boat, then make their way inland.  The threads of the blue river here carry bright new fabrics along the dull brown riverbanks. Small white stitches show how some of these new textiles make their way further into town.

Of course now you can get any goods delivered overnight.