Artist Statement

This sweater is obviously a statemend, but all my mends, or co-designs, are meant to stand out. To me, mending is an artistic intervention, a structural, methodological, even metaphysical interference in the life path of a textile object; its application more choice than chore, since it consumes the luxury of time. This counters the history of the mend. For centuries, or millennia, stitchers, usually women, strove for minimal transformation when addressing—relentlessly, inescapably, thanklessly—the effects of time and wear on personal and household textiles. Patches and darns signaled inaccessibility of replacement goods and announced poverty, causing shame. Today, mass-produced faux-patches and industrially ripped denims signal not poverty but fashion. Textile is disvalued. Hyperproduction in insulting conditions, planned obsolescence, trend-based dressing, brand hegemony, discarding disguised as donation or decluttering—I mend in relationship to all of that, gleefully customizing and conserving—in this case punk smocking—what was made for landfill.