The hundred plus clothing items contributed to the Collecting Loss project, once documented, were cut apart into small pieces. Using a technique of machine embroidery, these were then re-sewn together to create a collective fabric. This was then sewn into twelve new items of clothing and a teddy bear.

By using threads as the main medium, these textiles works re-piece individual lives and identities together, and in doing so, attempt to give grief a tangible form and shared container.

The textile works were not presented flat on the wall, but instead were suspended in the gallery space and given a three-dimensional form. Views were invited to contemplate both the space in-between the threads and the hollow space inside the garments. Both represent, the absence of a physical body, while paradoxically alluding to its presence.

Navigating empty space can become quite difficult after a death. It is a perpetual reminder of who is no longer there, who we can no longer touch. There is a permanent intangibility to loss. This project attempts to give an emergent voice to this empty space and silence.

The pieces, like the original clothing, are deeply personal and intimate. They make public what is kept most private, bridge the gap between self and community. They remind us that we are interconnected by grief.