I thought it would be Roses offers an opportunity to examine personal reflections of womanhood. It began with me wanting to speak with women about their sexual narratives with a desire to understand firsthand their experiences. Through understanding others perhaps, I could better know myself. The significance of this research and resulting work is to give voice to women’s experiences, thoughts, and feelings. This facilitates a more open dialogue and gives us permission to talk about gender and sexuality. It aims to expose the bias apparent in the taboos and societal untruths surrounding female sexuality while discussing the greater ‘collective consciousness’. Through tapping into this collective experience, the research aims to interrogate a gendered sense of self or identity and how this is connected to a woman’s sexuality.
I interviewed eight women and from these interviews love letters were created. As the interview process was a cathartic conversation between participants and me, we both agreed that the transcripts should be kept between us. We needed a way to package their words for public viewing. The letters give the participating women right of reply. They draw attention to narratives and experiences that are often ignored or skewered in the mainstream conscious. Women’s sexual narratives, and the experiences of young women are commonly relayed and understood through rhetorical fairy-tale, rather than through storytelling and voice (as they might commonly be articulated in a private space). The installation begins with my letter and a mirror offset behind it. Not only does it reveal the process of ‘making’ but reflects the viewer reading the work.
The aim of the installation is to create a space which brings all elements together in order to give the women a voice. It also allows the viewer an opportunity to connect with the work in an intimate and controlled setting. Projected on the wall, the slowed video of my mother sewing the letters is a silent soundtrack to the reading. My mother, Margaret, in a sense is the matriarch that has already lived these lives.
Collaboration and process has been so incredibly important to this project and this needs to be seen in the final install. The collaboration is shown as the needle and thread used by the sewing group to embroider the love letters will be left in the fabric as a signature. The process is prevalent as when the viewer enters the gallery space they will be met with a single hanging embroidered letter with a mirror placed, off set, behind it. The mirror is representative of the process, displaying the mess behind the sewn words. This letter is mine. It is me joining arms with the women and taking the first bullet so to speak.
The sharing of knowledge is incredibly important in this project in which stories are shared. This has been further emphasised by bringing together a group of women to sew the letters. This symbolises the sharing of knowledge between women.
In part it was my mother, Margaret, who was the catalyst for undertaking this project. She has lived these women’s stories. I have come to realise I will never be as close to her as I am now. I will leave university, and with that, move away from the closeness of the family unit. This partnership, process, and final installation is a way to pay homage to that.