Cloth is constant. From our first moments alive until we take our last breath, we are surrounded by it. Cloth embraces us in warmth, comfort and protection. It hides our nakedness and it dresses our wounds. For me, emotion and sentiment are inexorably woven amongst the fibers of cloth; the age, colors, patterns, textures and origins hold the power to transport me to another time and place. Utilizing a collection of vintage and modern fabrics, wool-blend felt and found objects, I build colorful, abstract, mixed media sculptures. A variety of hand-stitching, machine sewing, quilting, crochet, cross-stitch and embroidery are incorporated into each piece. By using handicrafts that have long enforced ideals of femininity and adherence to traditional gender roles, I am confronting the damage caused by spending most of my early life in a religious cult. I deliberately use crafting skills traditionally associated with women’s work and domesticity to issue a scathing rebuke of the patriarchal notion that my happiness and contentment could only be found by embracing a subservient, stereotypical female role in life. Admittedly, I find myself preoccupied with my past. My early childhood was bathed in color, light and blissful innocence. Memories of the crisp, white eyelet curtains hanging in my childhood bedroom, the bumpy, matted fur of well-loved stuffed animals and the cottony softness of my ever present baby blanket linger. Adolescence and young adulthood were marred by the rigidity of life immersed in toxic theology. The emotional and spiritual exploitation overwhelmed me but I still remember the feeling of silky embroidery floss sliding through my fingers as I learned to cross-stitch, the luxurious velvet of the tithe collection bags and the dense, prickly felt cutouts used to illustrate bible stories. I continue to be almost obsessively drawn to both cloth and found objects that remind me of those times. It is as if recollecting and repurposing these reminders are an opportunity for me to revisit and reclaim my past. By combining representations of the colorful whimsy of early childhood with representations of the fear and shame I felt within the cult, I am able to process the abuse I endured.
— Kimberly Baum