The End of The Line? A Timecapsule
Installation, 2006
Blown glass, embroidered linen, stainless steel
Capsule w:30 cm, ø 7 cm

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The piece is based on a linage of women in my own family. I spent hours interpreting old church records and found the names of my mother’s, mother’s, mother and so on - nine generations back - until the beginning of the 1700. I also found their husbands, their children (many which died), the farms they lived on and the dates of their death. Most of them were maids living in a poor parish in the western part of Sweden and their histories are, as most women’s legacies, forgotten. Although women’s craft can be found in museum collections, it is mostly anonymous, sometimes monogrammed with someone’s initials.

With the intent to honor the lives and craft of these women, my mothers, I embroidered their monograms on linen cloth. The cloth was then sealed inside hot glass however, due to a certain combustion phenomena, the linen stopped burning when the oxygen was depleted. The embroidery is burned but leaves an ash image inside.

One of the time capsules is my own. I recently became a mother, but I have a son, thus this specific lineage of women could end with me. However, my own monogram I sewed with thread of silver, which did not burn like the rest. I guess I am hoping my Art will be preserved and remembered for future generation, but who is to know?

This piece will be shown in the exhibition 20 Years On at Glass Museum Ebeltoft, June 28, 2006 - Jan 21 2007.

Click here to view embroideries