This work explores the intersection of grieving and “emotional labor” made tangible in embroidered phrases from condolence letters from a late 19th-century Virginia family.
This work explores the intersection of grieving and “emotional labor” made tangible in embroidered phrases from condolence letters from a late 19th-century Virginia family. Harris discovered the letters at a flea market, and during the pandemic she spent time painstakingly embroidering words or phrases from the letters onto handkerchiefs in the style of the writer’s handwriting. Hundreds of these embroidered receptacles for grief and tears will be suspended around the viewer in the Microgallery
Christi Harris
Christi Harris Discusses Lachrymose with Tracy Rice Weber and Lee Matney
Lee:
Welcome Christy and Tracy . Tell me how this installation came into being and background on it.
Christi:
Well, a long time ago, probably 10 years ago, I bought this packet of letters at a flea market in Newport News, just hoping to use it for backgrounds, for collages, and I paid $35 for 'em. And then I got 'em home and I started looking at them and I realized they were all condolence letters. They were all to the same family and in regards to four different deaths in the family within 10 years, I just sat with that for a long time. I was trying to think what to do. Then finally it came to me to embroider it on handkerchiefs, because then the handkerchiefs could represent the collection of the tears and the grief and the way people used to use handkerchiefs all the time. Anyway, so I duplicated the handwriting and took phrases from the letters and then embroidered them by hand on these handkerchiefs and then tried to figure out how to hang them. So it took a long time to figure out. So that is where it came from.
Lee:
So the letters, what period of time were the letters from, a long period of time?
Christi:
I think it was 1896 to 1910.
Christi:
So very early. And some of them, it appeared probably were German because they used, and I keep forgetting what it's called, if you say possible, they would spell it P-O-S-F-I-B-L-E. Possible,
Lee:
Yes. Yeah, kind of like the old spelling.
Lee:
So very interesting. In my travels I found a diary of a girl from 1920 who was graduated high school and reminded me a bit of that. And we had the diary and had pictures from 1920. And then in the end of it, it was like the reunion of the class of 1920 is held at so-and-So in Tucson, Arizona, October 5th, 1973. And it had this thing, the invitation. So it was kind of interesting. So anyway, so tell me more, what fascinated you with these letter, tell me your thoughts on process of grief. Was there something that resonated with you in these pieces that spoke about grief to you?
Christi:
Well, I haven't had that many people in my family die recently, but certainly I know lots of people who are dying now or have just passed away and other people's family members. But just the thing that struck me about the letters is just how flowery the speech was and how they just seem gripped by grief and how they expressed that was just so gut wrenching and it's just so different now. People would just send a card like you're in our prayers or thinking of you and your family at this time or whatever. But they were like, my eyes were blinded by burning tears, and that's pretty dramatic. The way they talked about death was really, really, I don't know if you say antiquated, but people don't talk like that anymore and people don't write letters anymore and people don't write with cursive anymore. So it had a whole handful of these things altogether that I thought were interesting.
Lee:
So Tracy, can you comment on the works and how poetry intersects with grief a bit?
Tracy:
Well, I mean, just to say a few things about Christi's work in general, I am struck by how multifaceted it is. I always say it's so deeply storied and standing before any of Christi's work, if there's such a thing as well, it's a literary visual art, if you will, because there are characters and there's conflict and there are voices that are developed not just in thisi installation , but in all of work. So this installation in particular , I just was moved by because of the choices that she made and which words she pulled from these cards,these cards that were supposed to bring comfort. And I also thought about how we let Hallmark do a lot of our expressions about anything that is deeply felt, whether it's love or sadness or an apology. I mean, I think that we count on other people's words to help us express what we're feeling.
And I'm moved by these because I think that while as Christi said, the language is antiquated there's more original language, but I think these are feelings that are universal. And I think that anybody, I think that's one of the many things that I'm struck by in this particular installation is that I can feel each reading of each handkerchief. It informs me about the person who died. It informs me about the person who's writing the letter and the risks they're taking in sharing what they feel. I feel that with them. I think that these little phrases are things that we might say, or maybe we might not say it, maybe we just think these things. But it's interesting to me that there was a time when we were brave enough to reach into our day and pull and put together words that were representative of the complex feelings we were going through.
And I told Christi recently that this is the third time I've seen this exhibit. And I would drive to it no matter where it was, because I told her, this might sound strange, but it's as though I feel connected with this installation because I almost feel as though I'm being seen, my grief is being seen and my feelings are being regarded. It's a validation, if you will, and grief too. It's a universal, we all feel it in different scenarios and not necessarily with the death of a friend or a loved one, but I mean, we deal with layers of grief every single day and in all facets of our life. So it really touches me, and I think it would touch anybody. And then also the fact that it informs us about a period of time that has come and gone, that has historical reference as well. And I mean, that's really all of her work. I was telling my husband recently, Christi, I talk about your work a lot. You pick the right person. I don't know if I'm coming across as being articulate, but I said to Alan, it's like when you stand in front of any of her work, it's like reading a novel.
And every time you come to it, you learn something else about the people in it, or maybe the people who aren't there but whose shadows are somehow superimposed in the scene and in learning about any character or any conflict, any tension, any emotion, how can we help but not learn about ourselves too? So as she said too, there's the handwriting too. I mean, there are just so many things you can study about this, the handwriting, the phrasing, which points each character, each person has zeroed in on. And then just from a textile, the love of textiles, just to look at some of the intricate work that our grandparents and great-grandparents put into making every handkerchief a very unique expression of the person who was holding it and who might be offering it to somebody who might need it for whatever purpose. So it is just, I'll continue to go to this installation wherever it's set up.
Lee:
So when I feel I come into the installation, I feel like I'm in this meditative state. When Christi was installing it, I have a picture of her and her eyes are closed, and she's like this and griefs in front of her, and she's like, I mean, she's telling it. And it's really, that's the way I feel when I'm sitting in the installation. I feel this kind of energy. One of my friends passed away six years ago, and they put everything, she owned all of her mementos on this corner, on this bed and these books, and you felt this energy in the room. And they said, I could take any book on the shelf that was there. It was Rodin on art. And so I got that, but the energy was really good, and I feel it. Here's that energy about real people.
Tracy:
And Lee, I think where the way in which you have it in this small space, I think that adds to the power of that very thing. I mean that it's contained in such a way rather than in a large room where I guess there would be some advantage to that as well. But because of that energy and because of the compressed nature of the work, I think that just adds to the power.
Lee:
Yes, definitely. Definitely. Christie, do you have any comments on what was said?
Christi:
Tracy's my biggest fan, and it's always so nice to hear what she has to say. I mean, she said a lot of the things I should have said. I feel like what I said was superficial, but it was definitely something that I thought about a lot over. I mean, it took me several years to figure out, and then I was embroidering these and they were hand embroidered, and it was a meditation too. And while I was doing that, COVID was going on. Both of Bob's dogs died, then two of my cats died and my father died, which I wasn't close to my father, but regardless. Anyway, so I'm thinking about the loss of these beings and stitching and stitching and stitching all night, someone else's words. And I can see shocked behind you, I wasn't shocked, but some of the other ones, they're so tender the way they're said. And yeah, the different types of handkerchiefs, some of them were souvenir handkerchiefs. Some of them were everyday kind of men's handkerchiefs. Some were printed, some were gifts. Women collected these, that's what they got for presents, just like men used to get ties eyes. So there's just such a variety, and I was just so struck by that too. And then I felt there needed to be more variety in the phrases and the colors and the sizes. And eventually I think it got there. And there's more handkerchiefs still that couldn't fit in that room. And there's probably three quarters of 'em. And I don't know, I'm not done with them yet, but then I also need to stop at some point.
Lee:
So I was going to ask, so Tracy is, can you comment on poetry about grief that you work with and how it might intersect with this?
Tracy:
I think that especially with grief, I think that there is an incubation time that one must spend with it. Dealing with it in one's own unique and sometimes messed up way before it can find its way to any kind of artistic expression to be shared because it's so raw for so long. And I know that mean it was probably 10 years before I even tried to write about my father's suicide, which I went through years of therapy. So I had had time to talk it out with so many people, including a therapist. And I think that whether it's poetry or whether it's visual art that serves as poetry, which I think Christi's work does, there's a lot of time that has to be, I mean, the things that you don't create the time that you spend with it where you're not stitching or you're not writing words or you're not, that is as important as when you are trying to make sense out of your feelings. Arranging words on a page, I'm kind of all over the place here, but I learned it. It's just like writing fiction I imagine would be similar. You learn about yourself, as I said before, you learn about yourself when you try to convey a feeling, a thought when you try to create a character or a voice such as in a poem. I mean, it comes from you, but it also says something. It teaches you about other people in addition to yourself.
Lee:
I really liked what you said about someone who, who's off camera, not in the room or not present. And that one's very interesting to me.
The day after the opening, I went on the train and went to my birthday at a resort in Maryland and had relatives hadn't seen in years. And some of them are in their eighties and they have walkers and they're not the same people in some ways as they used to be. So I see kind of the grief of the things changing, family, getting older and wondering about the unknown. And it also was reassuring because I'd seen these people known me since I was a baby, and these are people you interact with and it's very authentic.
Tracy:
They know your story, they know your story. That's very powerful to be around people who know your story. And as we get older, those people, that population diminishes. And that's a very strange feeling. And as for these people who have gotten older, and I mean in my family as well, but I'm just compelled to say to you that they are still 30 years old inside that aging body. That's something that, I mean, as I have gotten older, I try to convey that to my students that you might see some old lady here, but inside I'm 23 and I still have all the same passions and interests, and I'm moved in the same way you are. I think that especially in this country, we are big on othering groups of people. And I think the elderly is definitely a large swath of people that we like to other,
Lee:
So I really liked this series. And the one with the collages, these people, they're not their actual story, but she's kind of using it for her narrative. And I think it's very strong in the sense that it is an authentic narrative and delves into pop culture and to the psyche. Can you comment a bit on that, Christie, about how you identify with these people and the trajectory of the stories that kind of impress on these,
Tracy:
It's creative nonfiction, that's what you've done there. Yeah.
Christi:
There's definitely something I'm trying to express. And in the collages in particular, I don't know what exactly it is until I find the right images together. Like each of those collages, they go through all these different stages. And now I use the phone as a tool. So I'll take pictures and see which little picture with this picture makes this thing more of a story or more of have more meaning. And something about the juxtaposition and the spontaneity of that. I think it is what makes them fun, but it also, it's tapping the unconscious in a way that the surrealists did and the writers with the cutup method and all those different ways of trying to access different parts that you don't even know are there. Of course, I did have some sort of a narrative in mind.
And those in collages that Lee is talking about thee backgrounds were wedding announcements from the 1890s to 1960s I found at a antique mall. And part of it is the finding, the hunting and gathering of the stuff that is the fun part. But for those one I was thinking hard about marriage. I just went through a divorce that was very painful and I was trying to explore not just my point of view, but maybe how the other person may feel though it was weighted heavily on my side, but I was trying to get into that, that there's more than one side to the story. And anyway, so those kinds of things kind, particularly the one with the icebergs and the two twin beds kind of one getting stuck on shore and one's kind of adrift and kind of angled in the water. And I think that one really, I felt like said something about how I was feeling.
Lee:
Yeah, so I just went through a divorce too. I mean, I've been divorced during the pandemic, so it was like we were separated then divorced two years ago now. So it was really hits home for me. Is there anything else you want to say about the exhibit? I think we have five minutes left there. Something we're going to do or anything about your work or your process? Practice?
Christi:
The only thing I'm thinking of is with that installation, there's no way to know how it's going to look until after it's up. And a lot of it is chance again, just like you pick, oh, here's one with five, we need one with five handkerchiefs on it, so let's hang that one up here. And it's just kind of random what ends up next to each other. And the juxtapositions I find are interesting. They're different each time I do it. And I still, if I hadn't been tired and sick that day, maybe I would've hung up some more. I don't know. I don't know where, but I would like to see it. You can barely walk in a room so overpowered by all these little pieces of grief, like hanging down and surrounding you. But it's hard to get it to that point. And it's hard logistically to do it. Mostly how do you tie it up in the air?
Lee:
I think it looks wonderful here. It's beautiful.
Christi:
Thanks.
Lee:
So Tracy, do you have any final words about this project?
Tracy:
Well, I was just thinking how the way that Christi has it displayed is almost like laundry, like airing. We're airing our laundry here, we're airing our feelings. And I think that also is another really interesting part of it. And I hadn't even thought about the fact that it's also constantly morphing into something else, depending on how it's arranged each time it's put up. So I mean, all art, we love to stand before it, and it brings us pleasure. It moves something in us. But as I said with Christi's, it's like reading a novel. And this in particular has the words, the literal of words to go with it. So you really feel as though you have experienced something.
Lee:
Yes. So we have, the show ends around the 10th of January, so we might have another short closing kind of party. So we'll talk to you about that. But you, the s great to have the show during the holidays, and I'm going to take a little snippets of this and put on Instagram and maybe put the interview on the blog and have that kind of thing. So anyway, anyway else. But this was great doing this and happy holidays to both of you, and we'll talk again,
Christi:
Such an honor to be here and to know her and to, I mean, it's such an honor really, you're able to find some little piece that can convey how fantastic this is. So thanks Lee, and thank you Christie. Oh, certainly. Thank you Tracy. And thank you, Lee. It's interesting. That's the problem with being at home. Zelda. Zelda, I'm going to make chocolate chip cookies now.
Christi Harris earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at Missouri State in Springfield, Missouri. The year following graduation, she pursued her M.F.A. in painting and printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, Rhode Island, graduating in 1995.
Her major series of works since graduation have always focused on personal and societal issues, with an underlying reliance on technical skill while using formal arrangements of color, pattern and shape. Her most recent series, “Meta-Palettes”, focuses on viewing her art process as an art product. The larger-than-life imagery of the paint on her palette is used to create the focus of this series, painted in trompe l’oeil style with oils on canvas.
Her academic career has taken her to three states and seven teaching institutions. Christi is Associate Professor Department of Fine Art and Art History at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia where she teaches foundation and advanced studio courses in painting and drawing.
Longtime educator TracyRice Weber teaches as an adjunct in the English Department at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA and at The Muse Writing Center in Norfolk. A graduate of the ODU MFA Program, her work can be found in River River, The Bangalore Review, on Poets.org as a recipient of the Academyof American Poets College Poetry Prize, and forthcoming in the 2024 winter/spring issue of CALYX. In 2021. Her chapbook, All That Keeps Me, was published by Finishing Line Press. Tools & Ornaments, her first full-length collection of poems, was released by St. Julian Pressthis past September. She lives with a husband, two of three sons, and two tuxedo cats on the Peninsula.
