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Artist Statement for Michelle Hayworth
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I come from a middle class American family of undisclosed origin that relocated often. As a result of this ambiguous history, I have become occupied with reconstructing memory and reality through the use of family snapshots and embroidery.
The photograph is scanned, enlarged, and printed on matte photo paper using an inkjet printer. The image is adhered to stretched, primed canvas with a heat-activated film. I then begin to “draw” or “paint” the surface of the photograph with a needle and thread.
The stitching models the forms and details in the photos that have been lost through time and by the enlargement process to reinforce or reclaim their reality. This process is comparable to the way we embellish recollections in order to make coherent narratives out of them. The slow process of sewing on top of an image we normally associate with spontaneity embodies the relationship of time in the present to our reconstruction of time in the past.
The photograph as a visual representation is two-dimensional. Drawing, however, is a link between the physical space we see and our hand-eye coordination. Because our senses are our only bridge to reality, I feel the record of perception is a closer approximation of reality. These concepts support the specific use of my technique of “drawing” with thread as I confront my memories in the photographs.
While I don’t intend this work to function as political activism, it is worth noting that both needlework and the snapshot have a history of tasks assigned to women. Ideas of preservation and family unity being dependant on women are implications of both the snapshot and needlework.
The photograph can’t escape the reference of struggle against impermanence. My attraction to the use of the photograph and the stability of stitch may be an attempt to salvage permanence from the fleeting nature of my history. When I look at the images I have chosen, I have little memory of them. As a result, I feel a physical impulse to consume them, to make them a part of me as a way of enveloping them into my identity.
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