Between Sleep and Waking centres on the pillowcase—a domestic textile deeply entwined with
women’s lives. Historically, the bedroom has been framed as a feminised space, and the labour
surrounding sleep—changing linens, tending to children at night, managing the emotional and
physical exhaustion of care—has fallen largely to women. In this series, the pillowcase becomes a
feminist site: a material that holds not only dreams but the weight of gendered expectations
around rest, responsibility, and emotional labour.

Sleep itself carries feminist significance. For many women, rest is not guaranteed; it is interrupted
by caregiving, anxiety, domestic demands, and the mental load of sustaining others. The tension
between wakefulness and surrender mirrors the broader struggle for autonomy within patriarchal
structures. To enter the unconscious—to let go, to be unguarded—is an act shaped by
vulnerability, but also by the desire for renewal and selfreclamation.

The pillowcases used here are found and reclaimed, carrying traces of other domestic worlds.
Through dyeing, rust marking, and hand stitching—processes historically associated with women’s
labour—the artist transforms these everyday textiles into meditations on the emotional terrain of
sleep. These marks echo the unseen work women perform: absorbing fears, soothing others,
holding stories that remain unspoken.

By foregrounding sleep as a site of vulnerability, repair, and psychological depth, the series
asserts that women’s interior lives deserve attention and respect. The transformed pillowcases
honour the complexity of the unconscious and the quiet resilience required to navigate both
waking and dreaming worlds.