In Housecleaning, Josh Faught explores the cultural and political meanings of textiles and their production. Beginning with a garden trellis as the main support, Faught has layered materials such as hand-crocheted indigo-dyed hemp, a reconstructed advertising flyer, and political buttons, meticulously creating an assemblage of crafted and found materials. Coming of age during the AIDS crisis, Faught was particularly interested in the irony of political pins promoting superficial messages of hope and resilience during that time of extreme loss. He has said of the pins, bow, and sequins, “I was thinking, how can I drown this piece in sadness and then put a polish on it?” Through these various materials, Faught integrates personal experience with the complex histories of textiles, politics, and social structures to examine the tensions that emerge and change over time.

—Evan Little ’22, Research Assistant

From the exhibition: Where Words Falter: Art and Empathy (July 9 – December 18, 2022)