homebody is a project that was started in the summer of 2022 and is currently in progress. Through a series of events, I found myself the owner of a collection of multiple women's heirloom domestic textiles - doilies, tablecloths, so many napkins - and had built up a hoard of my own handiwork I'd found in charity shops and fell in love with. Many of these textiles came from my own family, although new to me. As was my case, most family textiles are sequestered to hope chests and linen closets. Lost to time and out of use. homebody is my way of honoring the care that these textiles were created with, and rejecting nostalgia's impulse for preservation in favor of finding ways to bring these textiles back into our active lives. By giving these objects a place in our lives, we bring the stories of the makers along with them, and celebrate the unpretentious craft of handiwork. 

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Recently installing this work, one of the exhibition assistants asked where these objects would end up after exhibition. The answer was easy: back to my home, back on my body, into my life. 

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Collaborators: Kim Upstill and my mother Tracy Royal

Fabric Stainers: Mac, Nikki, Becs, Serena, Aman, Ben, Stephen, Ella, Kim