Japanese Garden (Autumn), 2022
This Japanese Garden was created with the thoughts of sitting in a quiet, autumnal garden, submerged in grief following the death of my mother in 2021. I am recreating memories in my mind, and trying to process the loss. The autumnal garden represents the past and the grief - of having moved past summer’s joy and aliveness and bringing a slowing down, a darkness.
This sculpture was chosen as the cover image for the special edition of the Ruby Red exhibition magazine. My mother would be thrilled at this!
After mum died I found my creativity was quite blocked and I needed to try and be creative in response to this grief. I tried to represent myself as the viewer, sitting in the garden,
The Kimono represents my mother – her love of these Japanese cotton fabrics which she gifted to me. A couple of these fabrics are scraps from the wedding quilt she made me and my husband many years ago. The Kimono also represents our shared love of fabric, of making, and of the discussions we had around what to make and how to best show off colours and patterns in every fabric.
The text printed in the fabrics and the origami flowers not only illustrates human communication, but also communicating with and in nature – what it can teach us and how it can sooth and calm and allay our stress and anxiety.
The small gift hanging in a bag represents to me the gift of friendship and love, of the unexpected surprises that can come at any time, and the culture of finding meaningful gifts for those we love.
The ‘shoulder guard’ at the top of the sculpture is also an allegory to strength – sharing grief, stress and worries, ‘bearing the brunt’ of emotions and showing how sharing concerns can help in our daily lives.
Despite living on opposite sides of the world, my mother and I were close in the last few years of her life and shared not only our joys and fun times, but also our concerns and stresses regularly.
Japanese Garden (Autumn), 2022.
Cotton fabric, aluminium, wood, nails, plaster, thread, glue. 65 x 25 x 20cm.
For sale: £295.00
My sculptures and paintings are for sale.