ELLE GAILEY
From 1419.
When I was little, I spent so much time wanting to be grown up, and now that I am closer to being grown than a child, I have found myself wanting to be a kid again. I think what I really want is to relive the magical moments of childhood. “From 1419.” is about these moments. It’s about nostalgia and memory and a feeling I have grappled with of wanting to be in the place I was last because I like the way I remember it better than any reality I could be living in the present.
This collection is about documentation and archiving in attempts to capture these moments and preserve the feelings attached to them. It is also a tribute to process and change. In essence, this collection is an exercise in archiving moments and memories through textiles in a format that simultaneously acknowledges and documents the changes they take on.
Process
I started this journey scanning an antique lace table runner as a way of preserving the lace in a moment where it had begun to fall apart. The scan inspired me to photograph my surroundings and begin making other textiles from those images using needle lace, knitting, and embroidery techniques.
These traditional craft forms are coupled with scans and fabric prints of the process and outcome of each textile piece, acting both as an archive of the textiles I have made and becoming new pieces to be worked back into. A process that culminates in a collection of garments that hold recordings and references to every step of the collection's journey.
Collection
