Tool & Die

Site-specific installation, 12’ x 20’ x 4”,  American Textile History Museum, Contemporary Art Gallery.  2009

My grandfather was an inventor.  He started the company, Beck Tool & Die, which specialized in the development of handmade tools, die forms, molds, and fixtures used in the manufacturing of textiles and machinery.  As a kid, I remember this WWII bazooka bomb that my father had.  He told me that my grandfather was a war hero who defeated the Nazis by designing the tail fin of the explosives that destroyed their tanks.  On my mother’s side, my great grandmother owned Wolff’s Dry Goods in Paterson, New Jersey, once known as Silk City, which sold clothing, towels, sheets, and other items.  Her daughter, my Aunt Ida, owned a children’s clothing store called, Zimmer’s Kiddy Shop, in Danbury, Connecticut.  

Over 50 years after my relatives made their various contributions to the textile industry, I found myself at Florida’s Thunderbird flea market, face to face with some quirky die forms used to make appliques for children’s clothing. The seller gave me a tip on where to find more of them and I rushed to a warehouse in Miami just one day before thousands of them were thrown away.  These beautifully crafted metal and wood objects had become obsolete, laser technology was the wave of the future, industrial artistry was the past.

I have held onto these treasures for years, each die form feeling to me like one cherished element of a story I had yet to understand.  Seven years after my move to Lowell, a mill town once known as the textile capitol of the world, I have found my way back to them.   These die forms are remnants of a remarkable history about the communal textile industry.  Every one was designed by an artist, carefully cut and shaped by wood and metal workers, sent to a skilled laborer for the cutting of appliques which were then given to a tailors or seamstress to sew onto clothing, and then sold to the public.  

Similar to the purpose of the tool and die forms, this installation utilizes a series of symbolic silhouettes to create a narrative.  While this is a personal iconographic montage about the development of my identity, it is also a tribute to the unknown stories of family members, artists, and laborers who worked tirelessly to build the textile industry and its supportive community.