For the Daughters of the Wilderness
The land as the female goddess, the fertile lady of the spring or Mother Earth, grounds us to the past, present and future. The fabric with embroidered text talks of the fields and lands of the Wilderness from which we rise and our lineage flow. Fabric and textile links to the past and how we touch the earth transforming the land in objects that we touch, interact with and change our lives. The garment of the vernacular textile mill worker tells of that transformation. In the 18th century my ancestors were farm workers on the land and the wilderness of the West Yorkshire moors in the UK. With the industrial revolution and the growth of the city came a movement of population to the city for work. My grandmothers were menders of cloth in the mills of the city of Leeds in the North of England. This piece is a memorial to those Daughters of the Wilderness with their whispers through the years; their voices, the Wilderness and the textile machinery softly speaking as one.