Trace, 11 May 2020

Embroidery on cloth doesn't last long when left to the elements. To find a trace of textile from the past is a rare thing, as fibres disintegrate with damp and dust. Textiles as a theme did not exist when I studied archaeology, and therefore women too were invisible in the archaeological record. Olive Schreiner wrote in 1927, "In that bit of white rag with the invisible stitching, lying among fallen leaves and rubbish that the wind has blown into the gutter or street corner, lies all the passion of some woman’s soul finding voiceless expression.  Has the pen or pencil dipped so deep in the blood of the human race as the needle?"  It makes you value the stitchery to be found at home, made slowly, head bent over the cloth. Rubbing the marks of stitching in graphite, like rubbing stone gives a haptic impression, but at the same time gives the sense of something missing or lost. This embroidery was made by an (unnamed) nun in Cyprus, on a little bag to carry bread blessed by the priest, embroidered with wheat, grapes and tendrils, ancient signs of regeneration. And hope, much needed at present.

Diana Wood Conroy, Trace, graphite and watercolour on Arches paper, 15 x 21 cm, 11 May 2020.