Faço a minha obrigação pois já outras o fizeram antes de mim - “I do my obligations because others have done it before me”
“I do my obligations because others have done it before me” is a work composed of blank vintage textile , stitched with fragments of old letters.
The piece proposes a reflection on the role of women in heteronormative relationships. Often placed in a passive position -especially within the logic of waiting-, as if settling oneself on a shelf, awaiting to be chosen.
Lenços de namorados, part of Portuguese folklore, traditionally carry romantic phrases and commitments. These are garments and handicrafts typical of the Minho region, worn by women “of marrying age.” It was customary for a young woman in love to embroider her handkerchief and offer it to her suitor as a sign of affection.
The letters sewn into the piece come from various eras, evoking feminine voices traversed by time and the repetition of the same gestures of love and waiting.
Captions of the phrases:
We shall bless even the hardest trials
Keep on abusing
My fate is to suffer and to love
Do everything I’m sure she would have liked to see done
I do my obligations because others have done it before me
We will kiss with love the hand that caresses us as much as the one that punishes us
Sweet little girl
And what if what we wished for actually happened?
An oppression that has been bothering me for some time now
He forbids me
Work and a lot of responsibility
