fragments
One third of our life is spent in bed, lying on a mattress. It is on a mattress where life is oft-times conceived and where it may end. It is where we rejuvenate and convalesce. A mattress is both the storehouse of our dreams and the site of our nightmares.
fragments is a project I started in 1996 when I began collecting fabric from mattresses left at the curb on garbage day. All that is known about the fabric is where and when it was collected. This uncertain provenance invites the viewer to contemplate the history, real or imagined, of each fragment.
Some pieces of fabric have been left in the condition in which they were found while others have been embellished and decorated becoming glorifications of domestic situations and daily rituals.
While these embellished fragments are extremely attractive for their decorative qualities they are at the same time repellent when we consider that they are made from the fabric of discarded mattresses; mattresses that strangers have slept on, had sex on, perhaps even died on.
I am grateful to the Ontario Arts Council for its financial support of this work through the Exhibition Assistance Program.
