“Ode à l’oubli” was Bourgeois’ first book of fabric collages. The pages were made of linen hand towels from the artist’s wedding trousseau and are embroidered with the monogram “LBG” for “Louise Bourgeois Goldwater” (Bourgeois married Robert Goldwater in 1938). To assemble the book, Bourgeois worked with a seamstress, Mercedes Katz and the fabric collages on each page are made from fragments of her old clothing and household items.
In my post of July 2016 I had just completed sewing token comfort blankets (made from an old found blanket) for a mother to represent the loss of her baby to adoption. Having put it aside for a while I have recently added to them with other words in Latin which convey sentiments from an adopted child’s perspective.
The Latin words are a direct reference to Mary Kelly’s ‘Post-Partum Document (1973-1979) The work was a six year exploration of the mother-child relationship. When it was first shown in 1976 it provoked tabloid outrage because it included stained nappy liners. Each of the six part series concentrates on a developmental moment in her son’s mastery of language and her own sense of loss, moving between the voices of the mother, child and an analytic observer.
I researched Latin words and English translations with the intention of conveying the frustration and hurt adoptees often attempt to understand and come to terms with during particular periods in their lives. In the work I used Muslin which is a versatile fabric and one that has been widely used over decades, particularly in baby care. One seller describes its uses: ‘Burping, Swaddling, Covering when Breastfeeding, Mopping Up Spills, Wiping Baby’s Face, Nappy Liner…’
The muslin squares sewn on the reverse of the mother’s blanket act as a backing and can be read as a ‘cover up’ or ‘backing up’ in the emotions felt on either on the part of the mother or child. The roughly written words are intended to express the immediacy of the emotions and the long-term consequences of unresolved issues and lack of transparency for both parties.
The blankets are bound together in ‘book form’ by a calico cover which has been left blank to signify that any adoptee or birth mother can identify with the sentiments contained within it. It is finished off with a red thread which links the whole book in an unusual way and increases the difficulty in turning the pages. It can have other meanings, eg. umbilical cord…I have made the book to be read in many different ways.
