Action 8
How do we process information, news, a bombardment of cacophonic noise that we are supposed to make sense of?! This is the story of repairing, listening and healing during the week of the American election.
This story began with 4 really old, disgusting, stinky dining room chairs and the onset of the pandemic many months ago. I had decided to reupholster these mangled old things, which, because of unending procrastination and unexpected displacement from my home a few times this past summer, was delayed until last week- the final days of my COVID quarantine. I was finally going to do it! The meticulous task of patterning and then sewing with a machine was done. I found a staple gun, a hammer. The covers were dawned. Then began the tedious task of sewing one last long line of stitch- by hand- to complete the task. 4 long stitches actually, one per seat cushion.
Hand stitching the upholstery felt incredibly therapeutic and spawned the idea of caring through repair that turned into healing through repair for something external. It was a reconstruction; an act of starting fresh.
I happened to be stitching the first of these long stitches during the election coverage post election day on Democracy Now, my favorite news channel that I love and hate so much. I love Amy Goodman the host of the show; she is most committed to journalistic integrity; she really does believes in the merit of transparent and unbiased reporting. But the daily coverage is loud and honestly, depressing. The world seems to be full of turmoil. This particular red stitch happened to be during this one news day ridden with activities of right wing militia and QAnon conspiracies, Steve Banon calling for the beheading of Anthony Fauci, not to mention arrested protesters and really everything else gruesome and appalling in between. Every time, I leave watching the news feeling informed, yes, but exhausted. And really more helpless than before. This all seems so counter-intuitive; Amy Goodman would be devastated to hear that all her journalistic integrity and information dissemination is actually leaving a whole population of people feeling angry, exhausted and helpless. I really just want to give Amy a hug; and more than anything, I just want her to hug me and tell me everything will be okay.
Anyways, through this act of reuphostering the chairs and specifically hand stitching, I was reminded of the slowness that comes with sewing that facilitates a different kind of active listening; this act of listening transcends the act of making sense that otherwise occurs while consuming information. So I decided to continue sewing, but this time I began to repair my couch that has housed all my emotional states for the last three years since its been in my possession.
As I sewed, I listened to the news, but there was no impetus to make sense. I embedded all that information into each of the these soft stitches. The needle pushing all the crud into the couch, pulling out clean lines that made another chaotically tactile pattern to close a gap/ a gash/ a wound. My couch is now emblematic of a strange time in American -global history and the the healing and repair that followed.
Healing Through Repair and Listening
Surgical repair
Clumpy patterns as heuristic
Creating clump myths
FINAL IMAGES TO COME**