Portrait of a Marriage

Conscious and unconscious memory is activated by our associations with cloth, stirring our senses and emotions. ‘Portrait of a Marriage’ is a textile assemblage book within which a poem reveals the intimate emotions and thoughts that textiles evoke. This oeuvre references the textile books of Louise Bourgeois. 

I awaken to the scent of your body

in the sheets and your pillow

in the clothes you wore  yesterday

still unwashed.

My hand caresses the creases

of where you lay

I inhale slowly and deeply 

absorbing the redolence

that still summons my love.

I sort through your clothes

where your absent body still resides

in the stains and in the folds

in the way your elbows and knees

have shaped them.

I leave them there, absented

your body still lingering

longing that once again

you  will inhabit them.

molecules and cells

imbedded between the threads

are all I have of you

now

Co. 2019 Line Dufour