petrichor: a healer’s apron

2020 - ongoing

petrichor is the smell of rain hitting the earth. It is an ancient sense, a sweet smell, a call to re-enchant the world around us. It asks us to touch the earth and feel it on our bodies.

petrichor, here, is feeling drawn to ancestral magic by an underlying instinct, without a guide – being pulled to the soil, to the land.

this healer’s apron places the weight of this instinct on whoever wears it. both of the aprons that make up the piece tie around the body several times, demanding a closeness between the textiles and the wearer, binding them together. with it, the wearer is bound to protect the traditional knowledge stored within the apron, which can so easily slip away from us, like slips of paper fall out of our pocket when we reach for something else.

these pieces are part of a larger project, a healer’s costume based on Croatian folk wear from the Sinj-Knin region. i chose to weave a rug, an important part of the textile tradition in the Balkans. the outer rug apron hides pockets of traditional knowledge and medicines close to the body. the nine pockets can hold various pieces of paper. the apron underneath is one large pocket, allowing for foraging. Because it’s attached to the wearer, the weight of the foraged materials forces the wearer to consider their relationship to the land and what they take.