Citations

This series features the ghosts of texts that have been meticulously stitched, then entirely unpicked; the lengths of thread that formed each line hang loose and frayed. In each piece, the text itself is illegible, but its absence has been made present in the small residual fibres that have accrued along widened gaps in the weave, like tiny wounds with needle as weapon. It is both ink stains on a page and bruises across skin.

The original texts all relate in some way to the repression of strong emotions such as trauma, depression, or unrequited love. However, the only indication of their content are expanded footnotes identifying their sources. Therefore, the quotes were selected not just because they are powerful in themselves, but could also be represented evocatively through the title of the book, the title of the chapter, and the title of the subsection. The academic citation thus crosses over from being a purely rational/objective acknowledgement of a source, into describing the deeply emotional territory of a text that is no longer readable.

The embroidery, or its echo, thus becomes emblematic of a pain spoken then silenced, revealed then repressed; the unpicking resides in an ambivalent space between letting-go and burying-within.

The original embroidered texts can be seen here.

This work was first shown in the group exhibition Sewing Discord, which ran from 16 April to 29 August 2021 at Jendela (Visual Arts Space), Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay [Singapore].