
Follow
Like
5
Add to Favorites
Description
Single flower from my Pressed Memories Series.
During 2020 quarantine, I found myself craving travel and mourned my ability to be in new spaces. Something I have always done while traveling was to collect and press wildflowers and plants along my way. I save them in journals organized by trip. The colors gradually fade over time, changing entirely into new muted shades. However I found in looking back at these collections, it was the original vibrant shades that my mind’s eye saw. This color shift fascinated me.
For my Pressed Memories series, I have sewn these plants in both states – it’s the recording of the life and death (pressing) of the flowers in stitch. Each work is from one locale and true to size.
Size: 6" x 2"
Year Created
2020
Colors
OrangePale OrangeCrimsonBrownDark Green
Materials & Tools
polyester threadsilk threadrayon thread
Search Terms
embroideryflowers
View Profile
Rhian Swierat
New York, NY, USA
My work focuses on the recording of memory. I’m fascinated with how memory shifts and changes, how the more you ‘recall’ the stronger the synapse connections in your brain become. I focus on the textures of place and time and also the emotional impressions, senses, experiences that you carry with each memory.
I work primarily with embroidery and fiber, using what has historically been seen as craft methods. I use a mix of fibers, both traditional and found fibers. My process through sewing has no shortcuts, I must make every stitch to fill a space. This becomes meditative as I work to recall each memory and distill it into a physical representation. Each piece becomes a conversation between me and the materials. What often starts in one direction will change as the layers build and affect each other.