Project Statement: Linen Service

Linen is woven from the fibers of the flax plant. Because of its pristine, bright white appearance, linen has symbolized purity, holiness, and righteousness. In this body of work, graphite drawings fill in the negative space between the damask patterns of formal linen artifacts, unveiling the obverse and shrouded meanings woven into these fabrics.

Domestic linens are archives of time and place. They are fraught chronicles of relationships that produce silences and reinforce oppressive social systems dependent upon exclusionary practices and violence. Historically, the making, maintenance and collecting of domestic linens was considered women’s work as these activities were considered benign, beautifying, and uncomplicated. Such occupations gave women the implicit task of performing and reinforcing the cultural imperative that a woman embody virtue and refinement. It was assumed that it was a woman’s role to suture and hold the domestic sphere together. On a more subtle level, the feminine is tasked with the cultural reproduction of empire, cloaking and whitewashing injustice.