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Abstract
This article explores how, following bereavement, textile artwork may be able to make a connection with the viewer and allow a progression of their work of mourning. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from the literature of psychoanalytical theory, affectivity, and textile thinking to understand the importance of cloth as artwork in the grieving process. The article draws on the practice-based textile research of the author which, together with responses to the artworks made, discusses the way viewers can make an emotional investment in textile artwork and considers the concept of exhibitionary affect to increase the emotional connection of the viewer to the work.
Notes
Notes
1 Whilst the fold has been much discussed in the literature, in this context it is being considered specifically in terms of its association with comfort and care.
2 In contrast to Freud’s theory that the melancholic person directs the rage against the deceased onto their own ego – an object relation – Kristeva states that the relation fails to materialize at all. No object is able to replace the mother; “no sign can express the loss, and desire fails to emerge” (Lechte Citation1990, 34).
Additional information
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 and has work in the Whitworth Art Gallery collection in the UK and in collections in the US. She has presented her research at international conferences and has had her work published in the UK.