White Work
'A form of embroidery worked with white thread on white fabric.'
--Royal School of Needlework
I
am invested in plain seams, functional edges bound to prevent fraying,
truthfully sewn. The facts. These loose threads hemmed around the commonplace
for a purpose. It is pointless you arguing for the stability of satin
cross-stitch, their disingenuous little histories. Nobody pays for gold and
silver to be conservative. I
sicken at the floss of it, the twist and count, knotted in cerise, gimped in
rose. And the slyness of your white stitch on white linen, the innocent
excision of threads from the ordinary: here it is, you protest, my honest
handiwork simple as your everyday stitches, perhaps just an accent or two in
ecru or ivory.
Susie Campbell
Susie Campbell writes in various forms for performance and for the page. She has a particular interest in cross-genre, collaborative work. Her work has appeared in various online and print journals, most recently Shearsman and Smiths Knoll, and she has performed at Edinburgh and Brighton Fringe festivals. She has just started the Mst in Creative Writing at Oxford University.
"White Work" appears in the current issue of Shearsman.
