Everything is sacred

Everything is Sacred is a site-specific installation that uses methodologies of sorting and archiving as a means to meditate on the poetics of old, thrown away, unused and unloved textiles. Through engaging in a slow and considered process of cataloguing her substantial collection of textiles, the artist explores alternative ways of engaging with material culture.

Textiles are complex, poetic and contradictory, with the capacity to be and do multiple things at once. They are embedded with a rich history, have diverse utility and signify endlessly. Further, textiles' value is ever-fluctuating, falling victim to unstable social and geopolitical factors, economic conditions, art and craft hierarchies, fast-moving fashion trends and personal taste. In ‘Everything is Sacred’, I aim to focus on textiles' potentiality and poetics, uplifting them from the trash piles they were destined for to posit alternative ways of engaging with them outside of the use, exchange and disposal cycle. ‘Everything is Sacred’ explores these themes through a site-specific installation and the creation of a textile archive. Each item of fabric displayed in the installation has been catalogued by the artist. The fabrics are each given an item number that corresponds with a form which details the fabrics texture, size, colour and origin. The intention of the archive is to emphasise the significance of the exhibited textiles, and in turn, suggest an alternative means of engaging with them, beyond function and decoration.