Domestication

Artist: | Medium: linen and cotton tea towels, cotton thread | Size: 50x200cm | Date completed: 2010

Artist Statement

Domesticationis an installation of dish towels, ‘smocked’ and connected to form a continuous row. The dish towels, well used in the homes of our family and friends, are a symbol of home, of domestic life and domestic work. Each piece of cloth has its own story, donated from the homes of great-grandmothers, grandmothers, mothers, sisters and friends. In bringing these together it tells a unifying story of women and domestic life and it ponders the domestic situation a new mother finds herself in. Despite her equal relationship, while her partner goes to work a mother still finds herself deeply rooted in the domestic routine while she nurtures her new child.

The act of smocking these dish towels symbolises all women and their domestic work. It attempts to connect through history the shifting yet constant nurturing and domestic role women play. Embroidered panels of smocking, long associated with children’s clothes, were originally used on garments worn by men; labourers and farmers. Crafted by women smocked panels or collars added both fit and flexibility to loose fitting smocks or work shirts and made them more comfortable for their daily labour.

Domesticationis about heritage, work, family and home. Many family events, both routine and special, are represented in the dish towels and each piece is worn by the touch of many hands.