Memento Mori Memento Vivere

Memento Mori Memento Vivere features two embroidered mandrake figures on a reclaimed work shirt. In medieval and early modern folklore, the mandrake’s anthropomorphic root was thought to develop into a living homunculus and was associated with both healing and death. The mandrake’s root would become a living homunculus only if properly harvested, fed, and tended.

In this work, the mandrakes function as botanical homunculi. They are symbols of the garment’s transformation and the care that’s put into hand embroidery. By working slowly into a repurposed garment, the piece considers what materials retain [use, memory, history] and how giving an object a second life might also change our relationship to it.