GAIL PROTTI
BLOOMWORKS:
A GARDEN OF FRAGMENTED MEMORIES
ARTIST STATEMENT
Memories are gathered over a lifetime. Some remain vivid, while others soften and fragment, held not in perfect detail but in the quiet presence of things we choose to keep.
Bloomworks: A Garden of Fragmented Memories began with vessels. I was thinking about what a vessel holds, not only flowers or water, but traces of use, fragments of memory, and the lives of materials before they reached me.
I work almost entirely with reclaimed, thrifted and vintage textiles, yarns and threads because they arrive already carrying histories. A tablecloth, scarf, piece of lace, grocery bag, dyed cloth or discarded sheet can become part of something new without entirely losing what it once was. Through hand stitching, embroidery, crochet and painting, I join these fragments slowly and visibly. The stitches construct, draw, repair and connect.
The garden is a recurring language in this work. As a lifelong gardener and former Master Gardener, I think of memory as something that grows. Some memories bloom brightly, while others fade back into the landscape, yet all contribute to who we become.
Each flower represents a fragment of memory, a small moment, relationship, place or emotion that continues to shape us long after it has passed. Flowers grow from painted surfaces, textile vessels and furniture. Roots extend beneath a heart. An umbrella becomes a gentle fall of blossoms, while a table holds a small imagined landscape.
The cats emerged from the vessels after Mister Mochi came home with me as a kitten. They introduced a more playful presence, but they belong to the same world of gathered materials and remembered forms. Moving quietly through the installation as witnesses and companions, they offer a sense of comfort, curiosity and belonging.
The installation brings familiar domestic objects into a garden-like space. Chairs, a table, a teapot, an umbrella and a rug suggest a place to gather. The vessels and wall works hold quieter and more private memories.
I am interested in the way ordinary materials can carry emotion, and in the tension between permanence and fragility, repair and change. I want seriousness and playfulness to exist beside one another.
Bloomworks is not a reconstruction of one particular garden or memory. It is a garden made from fragments—some inherited, some found, some altered and some imagined—brought together through colour, texture and handwork. It is an invitation to wander through that landscape and discover the fragments that continue to flower.
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