XOXO

XOXO

2018

Found fabric, embroidery thread, framed

Triptych: 11 x 7 x 0.75 inches each


This triptych features found scraps of black and white fabric that have been darned and restored in various ways. Unlike the work of professional darners, known in India as ‘rafoogars’, the repairing done here is rough and amateurish. The title references both the intimacy involved in the act of mending, a domestic task, often done by women for family members, and also the physical forms involved in repairing damaged cloth, which can be generally broken into two categories — one requiring the criss-crossing of thread (the X’s) and the other requiring patches or tightened circular stitches (the O’s). This work highlights mending as not just a mundane and functional act, but a creative gesture that confronts fragility, vulnerability, and impermanence, is reminiscent of the particularities of context, embodies hope and continuity in spite of past rifts, and foregrounds the feminine and the intimate.