TIME CAPSULE SERIES
TIME CAPSULE: MORTALITY
This is a series made in response
to the plethora of Time Capsules being interred.
Tubes of metal filled with trinkets and messages
from our time to sometime in the future.
My response is that we are our own time capsule.
Our actions, our words, our attitudes, our spirituality
are the vessel and the contents.
I think of people like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr.,
Dorothy Day and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Their lives were, and still are, a living legacy to each one of us.
Let's not bury our giftedness, our compassion.
The world needs it now.
MORTALITY
MORTALITY is made from natural objects which will decay over time.
That is their nature.
It is also ours.
"We are dust and unto dust we shall return."
Roman Catholic liturgy
"We tend to forget that we are part of the natural scheme of things."
Pema Chodron
"Life is expressed in a perpetual sequence of changes.
The birth of a child is the death of the baby,
just as the birth of an adolescent is the death of the child."
Arnaud Desjardins
OBSSESSION
We are often 'wrapped up' in our obsessions, sometimes subconsciously.
Aspirations such as:
success
power
wealth
self-improvement
fashion
cleanliness
agelessness
spiritual seeking
intelligence
health
security
We become obsessed with the next 'goal' before we have 'let go' of the last one.
We lose ourselves in our obsession.
Aspirations such as:
success
power
wealth
self-improvement
fashion
cleanliness
agelessness
spiritual seeking
intelligence
health
security
We become obsessed with the next 'goal' before we have 'let go' of the last one.
We lose ourselves in our obsession.
The vessels are made of torn strips of unwearable clothing, fabric scraps, yarns and thread.
These are wrapped around a thick length of cord and stitched together.
The connecting cord has been created in the same way.
The wrapped figure has a primitive soft body, wrapped with the same materials.
It is scrappy and untidy, just as obsessions corrupt the beautiful potential in our lives.
These are wrapped around a thick length of cord and stitched together.
The connecting cord has been created in the same way.
The wrapped figure has a primitive soft body, wrapped with the same materials.
It is scrappy and untidy, just as obsessions corrupt the beautiful potential in our lives.
BLESS MY SOUL SISTER
Have you considered that we are
all interconnected?
all entwined?
all' soul sisters'?
Consider these ways in which our lives interconnect:
mitochondrial DNA
gene pool
culture and enculturation
nurture
education
habits
belief systems
food cycle
relationships
natural law
work
emotions
chemistry
recycling and reincarnation (we have a finite source of matter)
creativity
life cycle
metamorphosis and transition
travel
cyberspace
communication systems
What responsibilities does this interconnection bring?
What expectations arise?
What joys and blessings flow from this inter-connectedness?
Are we really 'one body'?
one living organism,
intrinsically connected to all the other body parts?
all interconnected?
all entwined?
all' soul sisters'?
Consider these ways in which our lives interconnect:
mitochondrial DNA
gene pool
culture and enculturation
nurture
education
habits
belief systems
food cycle
relationships
natural law
work
emotions
chemistry
recycling and reincarnation (we have a finite source of matter)
creativity
life cycle
metamorphosis and transition
travel
cyberspace
communication systems
What responsibilities does this interconnection bring?
What expectations arise?
What joys and blessings flow from this inter-connectedness?
Are we really 'one body'?
one living organism,
intrinsically connected to all the other body parts?
The vessels are made from recycled sheets that have been torn into strips,
braided and hand-sewn into tall cylinders.
The 'soul sisters' are created from the same materials.
Their arms are linked and they share one set of legs.
Their burdens and their joys are shared.
braided and hand-sewn into tall cylinders.
The 'soul sisters' are created from the same materials.
Their arms are linked and they share one set of legs.
Their burdens and their joys are shared.
STEREOTYPES
Stereotypes are woven into the fabric that is a woman's life.
We can exist within these parameters and constraints (the warp and weft),
established and perpetuated by a patriarchal society ...
or ...
we can recognise these accepted, and often unquestioned, stereotypes as oppression
and choose to re-weave our lives
and become the women we were created to be.
We can exist within these parameters and constraints (the warp and weft),
established and perpetuated by a patriarchal society ...
or ...
we can recognise these accepted, and often unquestioned, stereotypes as oppression
and choose to re-weave our lives
and become the women we were created to be.
CONFORMITY
How do we conform to the patterns around us?
Does our life have to meet exact criteria
or are we happy to be mis-matched?
Do we freak out when events do not conform to a preset vision
or do we adapt and let life take a serendipitous route?
Do we conform to traditional, habitual or old-fashioned patt
or are we open to change?
Do we make conscious, fully-formed, fully-informed choices
or do we 'go with the flow'?
Do we conform to institutional patterns of behaviour
or do we challenge the status quo?
This Time Capsule and the clothing
are created from tissue dress patterns.
Covered in directions and prescriptions on what to do next.
Do I follow these directions strictly,
or do I find my own rhythm, my own rule of life?
Delicate, easily torn,
they need to be reinforced, strengthened.
What do I use to reinforce
the nascent qualities emerging in myself?
are created from tissue dress patterns.
Covered in directions and prescriptions on what to do next.
Do I follow these directions strictly,
or do I find my own rhythm, my own rule of life?
Delicate, easily torn,
they need to be reinforced, strengthened.
What do I use to reinforce
the nascent qualities emerging in myself?
CONSERVATION
Do I have a heart filled with gratitude for the earth's resources
and live by a conservation ethic?
or ...
Do I see the earth as my dominion
and live by a consumerist ethic?
or ...
Have I just not thought about conservation
and fail to consider the consequences of my actions?
This time capsule is made from used bus tickets.
Machine stitching traces the route from my home into the city.
Red roses indicate the passion with which I love the gift of this life, this environment.
I celebrate this opportunity to heal this planet, my home.
and live by a conservation ethic?
or ...
Do I see the earth as my dominion
and live by a consumerist ethic?
or ...
Have I just not thought about conservation
and fail to consider the consequences of my actions?
This time capsule is made from used bus tickets.
Machine stitching traces the route from my home into the city.
Red roses indicate the passion with which I love the gift of this life, this environment.
I celebrate this opportunity to heal this planet, my home.
