PillowBook

In January of 2008, I went on a search for relics in the old people’s home Saint Elisabeth in a small town of northern Germany. Eleven of it’s inhabitats invited me to their rooms for an interview. The question »Which relics do you possess? Which is your most precious keepsake?«, revealed a diversity of things and objects. I recorded the conversations, wrote them down and quoted a summarised version within the PillowBook. The relics and interviews from the Saint Elisabeth home were the basis and inspiration for my PillowBook-drawings, from which emerged eleven patterns for handembroidered pillows. With the assistance of an outline and a coloured pattern, the motives were translated into needlework by ten local embroiderers on historical linen from their region.

Four of the eleven stories within the Gravenhorst PillowBook were published under pseudonyms at the request of the storytellers. The project was realised with a grant from the Kunsthaus Kloster Gravenhorst in 2008/2009.

Nikola Röthemeyer, notes 2009