Ha!
a sock arrived in the post today.
Small size childs sock
With dinasours
And an added crochet top.
I love the bright green/red colour clash in it
But now I have to do something to it..
I hold it in my hand turning it over and over…the sock feels very small and rather vulnerable. Holding it begins to remind me of my own childrens clothing and of washing, rolling up and putting away all their little socks in half sized chests of drawers.
Then it comes to me- I work with memory and memorial. I will re-make the memory of sewing endless nametapes on their clothing.
I hunt for a name tape. Surely there must be one somewhere in the muddle that passes as a sewing drawer in this house. We used to have hundreds.So expensive were they that I used to order them HENRY SWANN OLIVIA – so I could tuck one name under and not have to order two sets.
I found one.
Inside the sock or out? I decide on out. It feels as though I am memorialisng part of their childhood and that the name tape should sit on it like that.
So I sew it on – with bright green thread which is art not school and chain stitch which is art not school. Intuative choices, only thought about that afterwards.
I photograph the sock again.
On the image it looks as though I have claimed it for my children. Name tapes saying of course that something is yours. Not their sock.
Hmm…
In time as its worked over that unintentional claim will look less brazen and I shall feel happier. Their name tape will still be there, the ghost of all those evenings in front of the television……
