Reliquary by AK SAQA Member Amy Meissner

Amy Meissner's Reliquary is currently being exhibited at the Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer, Alaska. 

Here is what Amy has to say about her work.

"Hand stitching isn’t fast work. It’s a quiet skill that feels tenuous, nearly lost when placed in a contemporary context.”

“Slipping fast away, like childhood, like domesticity, like safety beneath the weight of something handmade.”

“I sew because I don’t know what it is to not sew, because I come from sewing women--seamstresses, factory workers, embroiderers, mothers--my work explores this tradition, couching it in the uncomfortable, or the unsafe, or the frustrating.”

“I’m inspired by textiles with the heft and history of the domestic--items so lovingly made that they’ve become precious, burdensome to store, impossible to use.”

“I’m inspired by the time it takes to work by hand, the drudgery of repetition. The work takes hours, the meaning shifts, deepens, but never loses its initial impulse.

Generations of sewing women said, “Mend it, save it for your children...the fabric is still good.” 

“In my reverence I do the unthinkable: I cut it apart.”  

“Then I slowly piece myself into it."

If you can’t make it to Homer, Alaska to see the show this month, you are still in luck. Reliquary will show again in the ConocoPhillips Gallery in Grant Hall at APU in February 2016. 

And if you would like to know more about Amy’s work and process please visit her website and blog.