Nostalgia is (not) Productive

Artist Louise Bourgeois once said, “You have to differentiate between memories. Are you going to them or are they coming to you? Nostalgia is not productive.”¹ I read this on a plane on my way to visit a friend in London, and it has stayed with me ever since.

This project, Nostalgia is (not) Productive, explores grief and loss through text and textiles. Drawing on Pauline Boss’s theory of Ambiguous Loss, I consider what it means to grieve someone who is still living. The work asks whether nostalgia functions as a coping mechanism for grief or if it merely re-inscribes trauma through cycles of rumination.

Through time-intensive processes such as stitching and weaving, I create a contemplative space for reflection and mourning. Words are embroidered onto pillowcases, bedsheets, and curtains—intimate, everyday objects that hold the body and, by extension, the residue of memory. These inscribed surfaces become records of inner dialogue, gestures of mourning that seek meaning in repetition and repair. I aim to hold tension between presence and absence, comfort and discomfort, remembering and letting go.

¹ Kuster, Ulf. Louise Bourgeois. Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2012, p. 43.