Hand sewn sheets of Sorbent toilet tissue.

Signed on the back.

Frame not included

Always soft, Always strong, was hand-sewn through 2020-21; during the peak of the first COVID outbreak in Australia. Sewn from a single roll of Sorbent toilet paper, its materiality reminds us how important toilet paper was to us during this time. The fragility of the toilet paper suggests that the artist was contemplating precarity in making the work—precarious bodies, connections, and the way these are valued/undervalued by society. In the 11 months it took to make the quilt-tapestry, I experienced what I describe as ‘a conditioning’. “As I progressed with the sewing, it felt like it was getting easier to sew. The material felt more robust; not so fragile. This led to an expectation of its robustness, and there were consequences for this”. As I learnt to handle the fragile toilet paper sheets, I got better at doing so, and interpreted this as the object(s) being less fragile; more robust. However, the material was, is and remains equally as fragile as it was when I started working with it. I experienced it as more robust through my conditioning. We can think about the feminine bravery construct in this way. We are conditioned to believe that the version of feminine bravery that is expected by, and continuously on display in, the mainstream—one that always soft, always strong*—is the only version of bravery that is acceptable. Why is that? Who benefits from this?