Embroidered Abyss*

Video, 12 min

“Text, from Latin, means weaving. The ancient language of the Andes is called Quechua, meaning a chord of twisted straw, different fibres united. In Hungarian, the word for ‘fibres’ is also used for vocal cords. On a spinning wheel, the point where the yarn emerges is called the orifice. These fragile references suggest for textiles a kind of speaking and for language a form of making.”**

A century-old diary written by my relative Rivka Rogovin, discovered in the drawers of my grandmother’s home, became the starting point for a journey that weaves together family history, mythology, and reflections on the intersections of text and textile, language and making, photography and craft.

The video is a documentary essay that explores embroidery as a language—one that emphasizes the tension between confinement and release.

I combine texts from the family diary with a range of literary and theoretical references, including Anni Albers’s writing on material as metaphor, female figures from Greek mythology, the poetry of Rachel Chalfi, and the writings of Hélène Cixous and others.

*The phrase “Embroidered Abyss” is taken from Hayim Nahman Bialik, “Revelation and Concealment in Language,” October 3, 1915, Project Ben-Yehuda, https://benyehuda.org/read/6049
**Mitchell, Victoria, “Textiles, Text and Techne,” in The Textile Reader, edited by Jessica Hemmings, London: Berg, 2012, p. 7