2016. cotton fabric and wool yarn.
ajavahe is a textile work completed over the course of several years to mark the days between july 31, 2010 and august 6, 2016. ajavahe means “time difference” in estonian (i was living in estonia at the time), and those dates mark the years of a long-distance relationship. we lived in different countries, different time zones, and Ajavahe is a physical manifestation of the daily and conscious decision to continue the relationship. each knot, made by creating two holes in the sheer, gauze fabric and tying a piece of yarn, equals one day.
to quote the architect Juhani Pallasmaa from his book, The Thinking Hand: Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture: “The hand registers and measures the pulse of lived reality.” there are 2,199 knots in all, with one side of the work appearing tidy and smooth (representing the romanticized view of those outside the relationship) and the messier side (representing the difficult reality of a long-term, long-distance relationship). the knots and rows are not (and should not be) perfect.