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Aby Mackie
Aby Mackie’s textile-based artwork engages
with themes of ecology, history, and resis-
tance through a process of reclamation and
transformation. Working with discarded
historic textiles, she deconstructs and recon-
figures them—disrupting their original func-
tion to create new meaning. In Fragments of
a Life Lived 3 (Reading Between the Lines),
she uses antique-ticking fabric as both ma-
terial and metaphor. Once utilitarian, worn
by time and use, it is reconstructed through
stitching and further manipulated with paint
and gold leaf. These interventions reimagine
its surface to form layered, disrupted visual
narratives—echoing stories of erosion, en-
durance, and renewal. The addition of gild-
ing speaks to the overlooked value in what is
often discarded, while the act of mending be-
comes a gesture of care and reclamation. The
viewer is invited to read between the layers—
to sense the life once lived through it, and to
reflect on what we choose to preserve or let
go. The marks Mackie makes—both visible
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and hidden—encourage a deeper reading: of what survives,
is forgotten, and might yet be reclaimed. Mackie’s practice
is a form of quiet resistance—honoring forgotten stories
and reasserting the enduring significance of craft in the face
of environmental and cultural neglect.
11am Fragments of a Life Lived 3
repurposed textile, gold leaf, shellac
44” X 72” X 4”, 2025