‘Throwing Mammaw's Handkerchiefs’ was a project I started shortly after lockdown started. The project quickly became a sort of mediation and therapeutic practice throughout lockdown.

Love and affection have been poured into the hankies. A significant aspect to the work is the underlying use of time and the references to traditional notions of women’s work.

While spending countless hours hand sewing the pieces of cloth together, I began thinking of the individual hankies in two ways. The first, as individual women - a part of a collective.The second, each hankie as a moment in time. Together, they compile a life’s story. Either way, much like their cultural histories, the hankies became storytelling mediums.

Once upon a time, these delicate pieces of cloth were engagement rings. They were tools of a hidden, silent language. They were tools of self expression. Claiming that one’s hankie had been thrown was an act of stating a bond between lovers. In the 1970s, men used hankies in their back pockets to express their hidden sexualities. In nearly every culture, hankies have been used as symbols of class, society, and fashion. Now, they are left in dusty boxes. They are found in antiquated nostalgia shops. Except for a few Golden Age thinkers, the vast majority of the population think they are pointless and most heartbreaking - they are unloved.

Meg Klosterman
MFA Media, Year 2

Video: ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyfHsWaUh8Q
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