Shannon Slee

Tracing Lost Stories turns to the intimacy of worn clothing and the mnemonic attributes of cloth to engage with embodied histories of violence. Textiles are witness to the human experience, evidence of the body’s entanglement with the world, and as a result they have a particular place in history-telling. This project is specifically informed by women’s oral histories of illegal and backyard abortions, prior to the varying state law changes that began in Australia from the late 1960s. These specific stories were transcribed in the mid 80s and published in a book titled Lost, edited by Melbourne activist Jo Wainer. Clothing was selected from suburban Melbourne op-shops where the women lived or accessed their abortions and then unpicked and pieced back together with remnants from my own or others sewing boxes. The resulting textile assemblages speak to the women’s desire to go public with their stories and their defiance against the status quo.