The Ties that Bind 1996
Made for the exhibition Recycling, Craftspace Touring, a zeitgeist survey that looked at all aspects of the reuse and reinvention of materials. The work is based on an American memory quilt, a patchwork that recycled clothing from one family, usually over a number of years. The finished quilt contained fragments of cloth that visually charted the evolution of the family members. I’d always liked this idea of a diary or textile family tree described through fabrics, colour and pattern. I decided to make my own version using the clothes of two people, male and female, compositionally the form is influenced by board games and puzzles. Symbolically I enjoyed the relationship between the path of life and chance movement across a board dictated by the throw of a dice. To an extent the circular shapes may be read as counters, the lines as emotional pathways, options to consider.
