The last and smallest room of my current solo exhibition at The Customs House contains my most intimate and personal work which mixes up my love of working on to the surface of old quilts and my love for my grandmother. It brings together embroidered quotes from her diaries, some of her household possessions and my beloved old quilt fragments. I still use the fork on my allotment.
Worn Out
Worn Out
In the year
that Mandy Pattullo became a grandmother she has been thinking a lot about her
own grandmother who died more than 30 years ago. She was a poor farmer’s wife
and was worn out through trying to make ends meet. To supplement the income
from the farm she sold eggs, raised piglets for sale and looked after the
calves. In the lead up to Christmas she would sit in a cold barn and pluck
ducks and turkeys for the local butcher. Looking through her diaries Mandy
could see that she had many livestock and money worries, but her own good memories are of her working in the farmhouse garden,
making clothes on the old Singer and her cooking for legendary parties at the
farm. Reading the diaries and slowly sewing her words brings Mandy closer to
her life and helps her reflect on her own role as a grandmother to Bobby.
No comments:
Post a Comment