TRANSCRIPT:

Historical representation through  

the chronicle - attempt to tell a story often lacks a conclusion, left unresolved  

text as a line, not a web? 

 Hayden White says - it fails – lacks chronology  

no conclusion but ends  

What is the role of missing information?  

“ . . . the stitching was an attempt at building a muscle memory, to etch the experience over and over again so that has the potential to be more reliable, something to hold on to, something tangible.”  

[stitching - building - etch – hold] 

This act of stitching did construct a thing, a tangible thing, but its existence was short lived. It was held only briefly and then left - abandoned - however documented in a photograph - a mere representation that does still allow access - but not in the same, tangible way. The moment captured mostly through the act/process of stitching and the accumulation of stitches and muscle memory in the hands of the artist at that place, at that time. What indeed is the role of missing information? Does this act of stitching matter – does the attempt at telling a story that is left unresolved only allow for a line - not a web? Are there not connections that were being made in the process of the continued stitching day after day. A connection/mapping of the accumulation of hundreds of stitches across time and space. And in repetition of what came before and what came after? What is useful about returning to these places through memories or reenacting through the writing about, or creating a story to tell about them. Did the form matter? It led me to the act of stitching - the form each time was the resolution. Each stitch accumulated to form the brick that was then left as a part of the narrative that was being built. I don't think I focused on the metaphors I was using as much at the time, in that moment. I was aware of them, but never drilled down into what each stitch contributed that connected to the experience of actually stitching. What the act of stitching together referenced as a metaphor for constructing history. I am interested in the process of, the experience of, the act of, the performance of, the accumulation of the making of narrative, the history we continually re-construct and deconstruct only to make them new/or old again. How can something like this stitch lead me to an idea - just making the stitch - the stitch itself is the thing - not what it's connecting - that just made me think of saying “A stitch in time saves nine.”