Marriage Portion
In 2011 my father presented me with a huge roll of linen that belonged to my mother's dowry. As their first-born child, my unplanned coming-into-being had a decisive impact on my parents' date of marriage and their ensuing lives. In place of this destiny, there now lay a bundle of cloth on my workbench, the presence of which I could not escape. The dowry gained more and more symbolical significance for my development and growth, but also for missed opportunities, for things left undone and for dreams abandoned and forgotten. On the basis of this feeling, I began to experiment with "cloth" as a material, to incorporate it into my two- and three-dimensional work. I became aware of how closely people and cloth are connected. For shortly after our birth, cloth becomes our second skin. It accompanies us throughout our lives, it serves as protection, to disguise us, to represent and embellish us.
B. Röder März 2013