Album Leaf (Polyphonic Assemblage 886), 2022

Silk, cotton, linen, rayon, kapok, paper, wire, acrylic, 50" x 18" x 3"

Courtesy of the Artist

Like my recent sculptures, "Album Leaf (Polyphonic Assemblage 886)" is composed entirely of remnants. It's a form improvised with elements of my former fashion studio practice. Each year, I used to design two collections, beginning by carefully sourcing textiles in a specific palette of colors, textures, and prints. In many cases, my fabrics were woven, dyed, and printed to order. So not only was everything customized and made in limited quantities, each production step involved the human touch of many wise and skilled individuals spanning the globe. This makes every bit of material precious and resonant with personal histories.

The terrible truth is that design and manufacturing generates so much waste before anything even hits the shop floor. Over the past 25 years, I saved and carefully sorted pre-production scraps too small or oddly-shaped to be made into garments. I only recently gave myself permission to delve into this stash and remix pieces from the different collections into sewn forms, stuffed with organic materials whenever possible, and adding recent souvenirs that echo the archival material.

With stitching, weaving, and knotting, Album Leaf (Polyphonic Assemblage 886) binds together disparate materials such as a handprinted silk ribbon from a gift, a strip of a hand-drawn and hand-silkscreened chevron print, a blend of silk and cotton fibers woven on a handloom, raw undyed linen jersey, kapok rescued from a cushion, and sketches drawn on architectural drafting paper.