Artist Statement
Def. Memory Map: n, a representation of the world as one sees and remembers it. Perception is altered by one’s interaction with the place, as well as by previous experiences elsewhere.
Like scraps of memories, I collage pieces of fabric together to create a representation of home. My maps record memories of daily life; a sunlit kitchen, a twisted dirt road, the route I biked to school each day. The scaled-down nature of maps forces me to work abstractly, prioritizing and symbolizing my recollections.
My maps are made of cloth, an intimate and familiar material. I use fabric that I create with repeated applications of dye, bleach and silk-screened elements. I collage these fabrics together to recall a place in my memory, and further embellish my recollections with hand embroidery. In the process, I become as familiar with the surface of the cloth as I am with the surfaces of places I have called “home.”
EMILY MIAH STEWART
