It all started with these 2 top photos. Driving into New York I would pass these two relics and wonder: What are these things? What happened there? Who worked at the site?
My research lead me to the answers. They're part of a Float Bridge. Designed to transfer freight cars from the railroad to barges that took them out to ships in the Hudson River or onto tracks that ran to the nearby warehouses usually carrying livestock.
I would imagine the dockworkers working in their tattered and stained denim overalls - sometimes torn, only to be mended by their wives and re-worn over and over.
I found out these men lead very hard lives that soften were ended by various types of diseases prevalent at that time: diptheria, influenza, encephalitis, tuberculosis and meningitis. I felt compelled to honor them by creating a piece that includes scraps of work clothing that are sewn together by hand and also mended in places as was done in their time. The hand embroidery reflects a microscopic view of the various bacteria that caused the illnesses.
It's a work in progress and I am still sewing!
