Lamination Machine
Arachne is a woven installation reflecting the impact of
unacknowledged, gendered labor across feminine and
trans-masculine spaces. The weaving entangles every item of
postage received from a family member during my high school
years, all of which are laminated. The vast majority are from my
mother. She relentlessly sent postcards during a three-year period
in which I cut contact and moved out of her house, after coming out
as transgender (FTM). The content of the postcards ranges from
updates on her life, to messages of regret.
I chose to align the postcards with weaving to highlight the elements
of femininity I brought with me through my transition, and to
showcase the similarities between postage and weaving: both are
falling into obscurity as common practices and being replaced by
mechanical processes. Arachne addresses lamination through a
lens of sentimentality; where items are preserved as a method of
respecting the labor which produced them.