Mother of Time, Daughter of Destruction, your feet are light upon the water

Photos: Michael Depasquale

Mother of Time, Daughter of Destruction, your feet are light upon the water

2023

Ash emerges from an event of radical transformation, destruction, and the beginning of what has not yet become. It is past, present, and future all at once; it represents a transition in which beginning and end merge. Its substance is dusty and porous – ash inevitably changes the conditions of its environment. Marei Loellmann processes the volcanic ash from sharp-edged molten magma into a wearable textile in order to bring the material containing the event close to the body. The transformation into the textile occurs with the inclusion of found materials that in themselves reference global infrastructures and logistics, capital, resources, and human labour. The repetitive physical processes of rubbing, rolling, dipping and folding, weaving, and quilting together become actions in which all the bodies involved interact. As embodied touch, the textile here becomes a carrier, a material manifestation, and a metaphorical container for the entanglements of destruction and new beginnings, vulnerability and transience, hope and continuity.

Volcanic ash, embroidered tension belts, ropes, linen, rivets

186 x 128 cm

Photo: Michael Depasquale