This week, my research on intergenerational silence between women, took a rather tactile turn. I began to embroider the essay.
The textiles, the tactility of a cloth, especially something as a saree- which does not come from any kind of isolation, but rather a very rich historical foregrounding of its own in the culture, present and old, of South Asia can have so much of nuances to the idea of comprehending silence. On it, the medium of embroidery and sewing engaged within it a very subversive dialogue. On it, I layer with acrylic paint the visual imagery of conversations and anecdotes I shared with older women here in Switzerland.
As I charted on to map this inter-cultural mesh of conversations, through my informal conversations, interviews and art-making, I also saw the parallels between South-Asian and European silences. Similar in spirit, different textures. Homely and foreign. I wondered if there was a way to museumize these many kinds of silences? Women already house many different spaces, gaps, ruptures and silences, so is there a place to put it all down, all that we have been carrying?
I then went to Stadtbibliothek, a local community library in Winterthur to access an embroidery machine. I then tried hands-on my curiosity on the machine and embroidered the mesh and spirit of my project on to it. Worked with a new material, new skill. Can say I am getting better at it.
