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Abstract
The choice of material in the creation of artwork is vital to the communication of the meaning of the work. Bedsheets act as silent witnesses to many natural processes in life such as birth, puberty, pleasure, disease, decay, and death. At a time of day when we are wearing little clothing, or perhaps none at all, the bedsheet is in contact with the body for many hours every night, soaking up sweat and bodily fluids to create a very personal cloth impregnated with the identity of a person. The bedsheet can become a material on which to literally or metaphorically write our meanings and messages to the world. This article will discuss the materiality of the bedsheet, an everyday and humble cloth. It will reference the work of artists, including Ewa Kuryluk who used sheets in her work, and draw on my own research into the use of materials to carry metaphors of grief and loss. It will be illustrated by my recent works using bedsheets to make a connection with the emotions of the viewer.
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Notes on contributors
Beverly Ayling-Smith
Dr Beverly Ayling-Smith is an artist and researcher. Her doctoral research examined how cloth can be used as a metaphor for loss and how it can connect with the emotions of the viewer. Beverly has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, has work in the Whitworth Art Gallery collection in the UK and in collections in the USA. She has presented her research at international conferences and has had her work published in the UK.