Excavation #3

Anke Fox's tapestries depict objects of past human cultural activity. These material remains, dug up from the earth of long forgotten sites, offer fragmentary glimpses into our past, and draw attention to the way we construct our histories– histories from which women have most often been excluded due to the fragility of their work. 

Cloth is biodegradable and eventually disappears. The small pieces, made of fine linen yarn, reveal the intimacy of the weaving process and reflect a sense of preciousness. Time is a significant factor in tapestry making. The process of repetition and accumulation, the slowness of building up the woven structure, produces an image that suggests a layering of time. 

The tapestries raise questions about historic documents as objects of knowledge. To what extent is our history based on random speculation, haphazard memories and elements of chance? Fox finds a sense of pleasure in the uncertainty and intangibility integral to our attempt of making order of our past.