cover, pillowcase, sleeve  2006

silk, hair, wadding, satin

installation view

1995/2006

In the nineties, I was making work based on abjection and the body, on liminality and transition. The edges and boundaries where one becomes another. Hair provided a material focus to investigate and represent these matters. The abject, that which is out of place, is often observed as a trace or fragment, detached from its whole. In the dislocation, the abject creates an anxiety, threatens to disrupt to social order.

 

I made cover, slip and sleeve in response to a woman who had shifted into the bus stand at Railway Square in Sydney, with her few possessions and ritual bed making. She lived there for many months, as I witnessed on my daily commute. A most private space occupying the most public of spaces.

 

sleeve came first, found and adrift. Skin coloured satin embroidered with her vulnerability. An arm’s length. The hand stitched hair my own ritual, a spell, a light quilt for warmth, a shield for protection. 

 

In recent years, the number of women experiencing homelessness in Sydney has doubled. There are ongoing calls for more shelters, for community and public housing.