To my great aunts
Collage intervened with hand embroidery
Unique pieces.
German Echting photo paper
Artists: collaborative work: Raoul Delgado - Fernanda J. Carregado
To my great aunts
Summers in Buenos Aires in Lanús, my great aunts' house lifting tiles looking for worms and playing in the backyard. They made me tea with powdered milk and crackers for a snack, the two seamstresses, in their kitchen the pedal-operated Singer sewing machines and denim fabrics with which they made me some crafts.
My aunt Esther always asked me, do you want me to draw something for you? She drew women's faces with long eyelashes and 1950s hairstyles, pretty faces that were in fashion when she was young and that she scribbled repeatedly to entertain me. The emotional thing about those summers that faded are those images embroidered in my mind to this day, without realizing it, those women with hairstyles from the 50s are still alive for me and so are my great aunts.
These embroideries inspired by women carry vessels on their heads, a task that was assigned to women before there was running water in the houses. Drinks and food were moved from one place to another in this way with a padded cloth thread that was placed above the head that served to support and cushion heavy weights. On that support, baskets, cauldrons, jugs and other objects that required a perfect balance, so they could have their arms free to be able to carry more things with them.
We continue to put things on our heads, currently hats and headdresses on special occasions, it is no longer a primary need but a mere decoration, these pieces that I have dedicated several years to making represented a progression of something very intimate and personal, helping me in difficult moments, using them as an escape that finally resulted in this compendium of ideas titled THE SEA BY CAR and added to this OTHER ISSUES AND A USED BOOK.
This union of the 50s, of my experiences through a hat from 2016 until today and this a heavy feminine task that was to carry water on the head through a bun, the sum of these three issues is amalgamated in these pieces embroidered in He loves my great aunts.
Fernanda J. Carregado
July, 2024
