Emotional Repair solo exhibition
Ruth Singer
Loughborough, England
Human hair, hand embroidery
Self portrait of my own eye, stitched with donated human hair. Inspired by a fragile hair embroidery in the Gawthorpe collection.
Worn out duster, hand embroidery
The act of trying desperately to hold together something which is beyond repair.
I believe this tray cloth was made by my paternal grandmother who died before I was born. I have recorded and preserved the stitching using printing techniques before unpicking the colourful embroidery and leaving just the traces of needle marks and thread shadow behind. By reworking my grandmother’s work I hope to give it a new life, a new meaning. The processes I use to make these pieces honour the invisible traces of textile inheritance my grandmother left me.
Antique baby shirt, my hand embroidery
Baby clothes mean different things to different people. There are many stories which go untold.
Vintage handkerchief with rose embroidery as found, my hand embroidery in silk thread.
This began with looking at ‘Forget Me Not’ embroideries in the collection. Sometimes though, it is better to forget than remember. Some things must be let go.