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Threadbare
Recycled Teabags hand-stitched together with encased images of childhood printed on transparencies, 22x22", 2007
Clothing as identity has been a major theme in my recent work. I'm working with clothing as an intimate container for memories not as a statement about fashion, class, or social status but rather, what messages clothing told the world about me, and in turn, how I received the message back.
For me, stitches are a natural female language. I draw with hand-sewn and machine stitches like raised scars on the thin skin of the colored film. Cut up pieces of felt, emptied tea bags and used dryer sheets have recently found their way into my work, incorporating my love for the handmade, discarded, mended and homemade.
My pieces are like tattered poems, holding on to what's left. Their message is 'we survived, we are remembered'. I embed, print and stitch photographs from my childhood on to garments, which float on the wall free, frameless and unbounded.
www.gwensamuels.com