'In Memory of My Self' (2021)

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Patchwork Tapestry

Enclosed within hand-sewn, fabric boundaries are the labels and roles to which the young mother is confined. ‘Young’ mother, ‘teen’ mother, ‘first-time’ mother are some of the many names now associated with my existence. These labels, embroidered both in my daughter’s outgrown newborn clothing and the tight-fitting, now discarded clothing of my pre-maternal life, speak about the dichotomy of my existence as a young woman in her twenties, but also as a mother with inherent responsibility and a duty of care. I am both a ‘young mother’ and a ‘young woman’ but never fully one or the other.

In carefully dismembering these clothes, reconfiguring them, and then folding and packaging the work to be sent away as ‘mail art’, I seek to achieve a sense of closure for the traumatic and sudden loss of my identity as a teenager, and embrace my new identity as a young woman and mother.