Detroit, MI
A silk pouch, a pillowcase, an inlaid wood box might all be used to store keepsakes. Their use assumes that small, precious items require preservation in order for the memories attached to them to remain intact. This says much for the power of objects but little for the abilities and needs of the human mind: to recover, to change, to move on. Jessica Wildman challenges all counts, transforming concrete things like MetroCards, expired film and a piece of her Dad’s Wranglers into something very close to neutral: ivory wool pouches. Her process involves felting wool around objects, cutting the wool open, letting the object fall out into a garbage bag, and disposing of it. What’s left is a soft, shapeless sac with an opening: wound, orifice, pocket, window and door all in one. It retains something of the thing it was formed around, that can’t be helped and maybe shouldn’t be. Yet it is something new, too.
—Lori Waxman 11/27/15 5:00 PM