Urban Notes
I call this series ‘Marolles Rags’. Marolles is the neighborhood in Brussels, where my favourite flea market is. Everything is on the ground and you really
have to get down on your knees and dig in to find your treasures – but I have never come home empty-handed.
One day I found a neat little bundle of folded textiles. All odd shapes, threadbare and mended and with hand stitched seams. It was obvious that these
were the ‘good’ pieces, salvaged from worn sheets and night gowns, table cloths and diapers to be put to yet another good use.
I was touched by the irregular shapes, the stains and the mending, and I wanted to extend the life of these ordinary rags even further and add to the
intimate story from a time, when materials were used and re-used many times. Fabric that has been handled, repaired, washed, ironed and folded
repeatedly has a quality evocative of human care.
During another visit to the Marolles I had rescued an old almanac from 1904, discolored and with torn pages, and by combining the textile rags with the
paper months I created the cyclus of a year in honor of the woman who originally made use of the textile remenants.
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