Wandering Wombs is a series of storytelling carpets created in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Looking to the long history of reproductive medicine for context, I discovered a 14th-century medical manuscript held by the University of Oxford depicting early treatments for various women’s maladies, including the practice of womb fumigation to treat the “wandering womb.”
By reworking and collaging imagery from this source material, I imagined new narratives for their passive subjects. The men centered in the original images are reduced to vaguely threatening bodies protruding from the edge of the frame, while the patients in the pieces titled Stand, Swoon, and Carry hold onto and physically support each other, creating new stories of solidarity and mutual protection.
Stand, wool, silk, 60x86", 2024
Swoon, wool, silk, 60x86", 2024
Carry, wool, silk, 60x86", 2024