The title of the project is What is the forgotten thread that connects me to myself? / What's the forgotten thread that connects me to myself?

The theme is a personal poem created from a female vision, about the very intimate relationship between me and myself, in an introspective process. I appeal to poetic language for its suggestive and insightful force that operates on levels other than the mental, with a major power to create connections with other people. I have been integrating texts into my works for about thirty years, first in linocuts and then in manual papers.

The work consists of a number of 10 pillows whose covers each have a text that is embroidered by me. In the exhibition, the pillows are placed on plinths, with photographs displayed nearby.

The texts have meaning and function both as individual statements, a poem-drawing-pillow, but also in different combinations given the number of pillows, their proximity and location in space.

I cut and sewed each cushion cover in such a way that it has a fold, its role being a surprise, an invitation to subtle and refined interaction with the texture and volume of a textile and storage material. Something concrete can be sheltered there, like a note with a love message or a reminder, thoughts revealed by the statement sewn on the pillow, but also a dream. Or our fingers when they fit the pillow or when they want to rest wrapped in a protective cloth. As in the case of plate drawings, I investigate the interference zone between finesse, luxury and functionality. I interrogate utility by expanding it and making it respond to the need for contemplation, sensuality, playfulness, wonder, connection. These objects are simultaneously drawings, poems, pillows, containers, places for dreaming.

We have chosen natural hemp, linen and cotton canvases in white or natural colors: ivory, ecru, cream, ocher, beige in the variants: smooth, melted and non-melted. I sewed with natural silk threads colored in the same color range, obtaining a stylish tone-on-tone and slightly embossed effect.

I used natural canvases for biographical, ecological and aesthetic reasons. I was born and grew up in a village in Transylvania where the traditions of spinning, weaving, sewing and embroidery were still alive. One of my great-grandmothers, when I was very young, still cultivated hemp, going through the whole cycle from sowing it to the finished object: sheet, shirt or bag in one year. I was impressed by the blue of the flowers and the shine of the flax seeds. I witnessed many times the complex process of preparing the warp and then the weaving of blankets or carpets. All these various and complex operations were done by self-taught women, endowed with talent and wisdom, and their actions seemed to me like magic. I also understood that, unfortunately, all their creation is done on the go alongside exhausting household activities, most of the time not being appreciated. Also that the power of materializing the objects they made was affected by the limited material means and the social context. I want to integrate crafts into an assumed artistic act having the status it deserves.

We chose undyed canvases, most of them being bought from a Romanian company that manufactures a wide range of natural fabrics from rustic to sophisticated, respecting the environment. Sometimes to complete the variety of textures or the chromatic range, but also for ecological reasons, I used recycled materials from second-hand stores or leftover materials from tailors.

For embroidering the texts I use natural silk threads that create a textural contrast with the cloth and harmonize natural simplicity with luxury.

By embroidering the texts by hand I experience different relationships with time than in the case of mechanized embroidery or writing with ink on paper, for example. Laborious and rhythmic creation provides me with a meditative framework for introspection.