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Invisible threads

By <a href="https://axisweb.org/artist/jacquibarrowcliffe" title="Jacqui Barrowcliffe" class="inline font-bold underline transition-opacity duration-100 hover:opacity-50 focus:opacity-50"> Jacqui Barrowcliffe </a> 2020 - 2022

A video and textile installation showing the unpicking of a hand embroidered tablecloth, inspired by the narratives and memories fabric holds. 

The memory of a stitch, of the hand that sewed it, of the stories it told.

Developed on residence at an old textiles mill, the piece offers an intimate study of the intangible nature of everyday narratives, and the record they leave in the domestic setting. 

The work considers these narratives on a wider scale in the context of the traditional role of the woman as homemaker and the relationship of women and cloth throughout history and across culture. 

Through a process of undoing, the memory of those narratives reveals itself in the small holes left behind in the cloth, ghostly traces of the stitches and the untold stories behind them. 

 


 

J B Jacqui Barrowcliffe

Portrait after loss (unpicked handkerchiefs 2020-2025)

Numb

Light on the darkest days

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