Output details

'My Loss is My Loss'

In the group exhibition ' Bloodline'

Hand-stitched paper patchwork length (English Method)

The work has been written about in 'Textile Perspectives' (Williams, R, ‘My Loss is My Loss’, Textile Perspectives, 2010).

‘My Loss is My Loss’ mobilises hand sewing in a radical critique of consumer culture. The piece consists of lottery tickets purchased for £10 a week since 2002: ‘Rhiannon makes hexagonal patches from them and carefully sews them into a quilt’ (Leonard, P. ‘Lucky Ticket’, Selvedge, 2005,). ‘My Loss is My Loss’ is ‘a never-ending paper patchwork ... It accumulates over time as more tickets are purchased, cut and stitched together’ (Hall, J. ‘Life is a Lottery’, Embroidery, 2005): this is a life-long project and an abstraction of the life it will take to make it. The money spent on tickets will accrue to £20,000 by 2042. Work requires technical ingenuity preparing an artefact to be stitched over forty or fifty years - already a conservation process is underway to preserve early stitching.

Following publication in Fiberarts, USA (Paterson, S. ‘Time Passing, Money Spent’, 2007), Melissa Vandenberg requested ‘My Loss is My Loss’ for exhibition at Indiana State University. Bloodline was an international exhibition sponsored by the Indiana Arts Commission showcasing ‘progressive approaches’ to traditional quilt-art. It sought to represent ‘cutting edge work’, from ‘a diverse range of nationally and internationally renowned artists’. Vandenberg selected ‘My Loss is My Loss’ as a unique example of ‘conceptual inquiry’ conducted through practice.

‘My Loss is My Loss’ is rigorous in its philosophy of practice involving commitment over time to intensify the meaning of a single artwork. Conventional functions of patchwork are refused in order to pursue an intellectual yet provocative outcome. This piece generates cultural capital from the ephemera of gambling and it questions capitalist society. It is particularly significant as a vehicle for critical exploration within the fields of fine art textiles (UK) and fiber art (USA and Europe).