The small square cloth, a ubiquitous piece of textile, has many manifestations in different cultures, such as the omnipresent handkerchief or the Japanese Furoshiki. Over time, the prominence of small square cloth has diminished and disposable products have taken over its place in various forms such as paper tissues, plastic bags etc. My work attempts to make a case for the culture of preserving, as against the disposable culture. I am trying to achieve this by making small square cloth an object of commemoration as well as an object that embodies memories to be preserved and treasured.

 

I am exploring the process of memory , in particular the element of reconstruction, imagination and fiction, because not everything that we remember represents the way things were. Photographs and textual artefacts are key sources of inspiration in my making process. I collect discarded & abandoned memory artefacts and look for photographs with some proof of personal story. In my work, traces of hidden, fragmented and decaying details of found memory artefacts are pieced together by embroidery, print and sewing as my mark making techniques to narrate and remember ‘what has been’. 

I interpret the story in the photograph, reconstruct and embellish it with my imagination, augment it fictional narrative with a and encapsulate it in the small square cloth. Through this, I attempt to reclaim the culture of preservation in a way that fosters a relationship with the object and to give it heirloom quality which can be cherished and passed on to generations.