‘Unravelling’

A textile record at a point in time about my late mother Nancy Hemery 

By her daughter Elspeth (Billie) Penfold

I graduated from Wimbledon College of Art in 2010 and started to develop work with a focus on materials and process. It was about this time that my mother, who had arrived from Uruguay to live near me after the death of my father, was diagnosed with vascular dementia. In between making my own work and thinking about the relationship between weaving, printing and painting much of my time was taken up with looking after my mother as her memory was gradually deteriorating. 

‘Unravelling’ was made in 2015, after my mother had gone into a care home as she needed help with most everyday tasks. The weaving and subsequent unravelling was an attempt to express the readjustment we were both making in our roles as her mind slowly unravelled. Yet there was also a beauty in the unravelling as my mother in essence became someone else and, at times, even seemed happier.

 It was, at the time, a fraught journey, much like the making of this piece but also with humorous moments and a reconciliation with what we were both experiencing.