Agnes Richter

I love words and they feature strongly in my work, mostly in the form of handwriting from old letters, recent lectures and quotations. The words are hand stitched or machined. A slow thoughtful process that leaves a permanent mark that may have been insignificant or almost forgotten. There is something so personal about leaving your mark with needle and thread.

Here, I was looking at Agnes Richter, a German seamstress (1844-1918), a patient at Heidelberg Psychiatric Clinic. She wrote on her day jacket, mostly in black and white with the odd piece of coloured thread, red, blue and yellow.

Words and sentences were stitched intensely all over, many indecipherable. There are visible perspiration stains that map the contours of the body.

Agnes rejected language, predominantly a male prerogative, and returned to the feminine and utilised needle and thread as a means of communication. I wanted to make a small piece to mark her life.

I used a piece of found embroidery to commemorate her life. I stitched her name, her occupation and the dates that she lived. 

Carla Mines