MLS, 2011

In 2010, while cleaning a family property over a decade after my maternal grandmother’s passing, I found old, tattered sheets patched with tea towels and cross-stitched with her initials, MLS. In response to curator Arti Sandhu, I created a zero waste pajama set for the exhibition Zero Waste: Fashion Re-Patterned at the A+D Gallery, Columbia College Chicago, in 2011. Adding my own cross-stitch to the cloth was a way to connect with my family’s textile tradition: in addition to cross-stitch, my grandmother made bobbin lace and was a prolific crocheter while mom wove rag rugs.

Installation photography: Thomas Nowak
Studio photography: Mariano Garcia