Circles of DNA, circles representing females. Energy formed in cycles on membranous folds and invaginations. Energy from nourishment. Nourishment powers the powerhouses.
“Food on the Table” is made up of a small wooden kitchen table with turned legs and two leaves extended. This was my granny’s kitchen table.
On top of the table is an oval fabric, handwoven from handspun flax fibres – the long ones called “line flax”, rather than the shorted “tow” fibres. The linen fabric mimics fine linen tablecloths but in much rougher fabric. It is formed into an oval structure – no beginning and no end. In the centre of the table are two clay forms – salt and pepper pots, perhaps – that show two different cross-sectional structures of oval mitochondria with their internal folds and invaginations, referencing those sample folds and invaginations in the oval linen fabric. Seven gold-leafed hoops are set into the linen, enclosing circles of fabric where handspun woollen weft has been added to create a pattern specified by the DNA letter codes of my sequenced mitochondrial genome. These enclosed circles represent plates of food – sources of energy and sustenance, there as a result of weaving-ish labour.
Annie was born in 1922 and worked as a powerloom weaver for a length of time that is unknown to us today, but certainly only before her marriage at the age of 26. This occupation is listed on her 1949 marriage certificate. After marrying, Annie quickly had two children and never returned to work as a powerloom weaver, instead taking up other jobs. She carried with her, and shared, an enduring love for all things textiles, particularly tapestry embroidery. She left me her sewing, embroidery and knitting tools and materials when she died in 2000, which I still use.
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