My Mother Sent Me to the Grocery Store

Word Weaves are tapestries that intertwine domestic materials with phrases taken from the 1920s game My Mother Sent Me to the Grocery Store. They use humble materials and traditional methods to lace fibers and text into a whole cloth. The contents of this word game from a century ago uncannily capture the language of 21st century culture and politics. The humorous, tongue-in-cheek, quips reflect today’s coded patterns of speech that cleverly bypass polite norms. A verbal affront in plain sight. In the game, players recite answers from a stack of printed cards in response to questions about what they bring home. Silliness such as ‘an insane bedbug’ and ‘a large blister’ are examples of replies. The phrases of the weaves are lifted from the cards, and I couple them with taglines: A Corpulent Clam – all belly no brain, and An Angry Wasp – the blight of privilege. Declarations as protest to the ineptitudes of American political culture. Yarn, women’s clothing, panty hose, rope blend into a coarse surface that makes the multi-colored characters a challenge to decipher. Untucked, loose ends drip uneasiness from the back, as if the guts of the woven characters. The seemingly benign words at first appear approachable and nostalgic until you read them and unexpected meanings emerge. Weaving as a covert communication tool has been used throughout history, in stories, myths, and in war. Helen of Troy, whose body instigates the Trojan War, weaves her narrative alongside the names of the warriors who will ravage Troy. Homer’s Penelope unravels her weaving each night to stop time while waiting for her husband to return and avoid the marriage to an undesirable suiter. Their discreet voices are heard within the interlocked structures of their cloth. Textiles are a defining sign of advanced civilizations and provide a framework for understanding societal systems where social well-being requires the same time and thought as the making of cloth, even if purely decorative. Photography: Will Howcroft