The Waiting Room – A Cloth Like Tears – Anticipatory Grief
This work begins in the waiting room – in the quiet, slow hours where nothing happens – except everything.
Through my textile project, I explore anticipatory grief – not to understand it, but to carry it.
Grief is not something to be solved. It is something we live with, something we carry.
With thread, stitches, pearls, inherited linen damask cloths, reactive dye, a bench, and sound, I hold the act of waiting – not to silence it, but to witness it.
In my hands, the sorrow of anticipated loss becomes a presence – dyed into every surface, mirrored in every stitch, whispered through sound.
Black has traditionally signified grief, but I expand the palette to reflect the layered and contradictory emotions of waiting, witnessing, and losing – especially in the surreal and disorienting landscape of dementia.
At its core, this is a love letter:
Stitched with memory, saturated with tears, vibrating with emotion – and above all, a tribute to my mother’s life.
Worn linen damask cloth, cotton cloth, reactive pigment dye, cotton, linen, wool, silk threads, stone pearls, wood frame, sound
