Pandora’s Fridge

Though many interpretations and retellings exist, it is generally understood that in the story of Pandora an amphora is opened releasing all manner of ills into the world. Upon realizing the consequences of the act, Pandora closes the vessel in an attempt to stop the deluge. She succeeds in capturing but a single thing - hope.

Beaded on Algonquin Territory in 2021 during the stay-at-home orders of the second and third waves of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Pandora’s Fridge series speaks to acts of hope, what was left behind in the community fridge for Someday. The first elements in the series include two 10-inch embroidery hoops framing melton broadcloth sourced from Treaty 1 Territory. Finished hoops are contained in walnut-finish round wood frames. 

These pieces include the artist’s first essai at embroidery techniques beyond basic backstitch, and include split-stitch embroidery in Hebrew and Michif. The pieces also include gratuitous thread changes purposely incorporated to increase the knots on the backs of the works. The knots are, of course, where the love lives.

Other invisible pedagogy in the pieces includes the proper stitching of the Hebrew characters from right to left, smudging of the pieces using gifted medicines, and online intergenerational collaboration with the artist’s niece and nephew from conceptualisation to the final framing of the pieces.

Our thirst (for hope) holds no season (1922), and you can’t beat the real thing (1990).

The pop is waiting in the fridge and it tastes better, together (2020). Here’s hoping.

Hoop 1:

‎מעשה תקווה/an act of hope/hope, a verb

Coca Cola Zero Can, beaded in mixed sizes of modern glass Japanese and Czech beads.  Incorporating silver-lined glass, opaque, and metallic finishes, a purple spirit bead nests in the centre of a hidden seven-petal flower. The can rests on split-stitch embroidery in quahog purple. Hope underpins.

Hoop 2:

Pakoshayimoohk/hope, in steel

Diet Coke Can, beaded in size 10 colour-lined Czech seed beads, with a mixture of vintage and modern size 8 white-hearts complemented by modern matte seed beads in size 11. Includes metallic finishes to simulate the aluminum can. Split-stitch embroidery in steel grey curves from west to east. Hope rises.