Pillow Talk

Ruddy Cheek, under the expert guidance of Lucy Brennan, a Joyce scholar, contributed to an exhibition for the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses, Joyce’s magnum opus. Pillow talk is inspired by the last chapter:  Molly Bloom’s meandering thoughts, as she lies in bed, unable to sleep.

I have a vivid impression of a bedroom scene, a breeze billowing the curtains, and I stitch Molly’s elusive musings threadless into a curtain for the exhibition space. I teach myself to spin silk and couch a shape as suggestive as Molly’s musings on an old pillow case from my mother’s trousseau. I imagine she would not have approved.

Molly mourns a lost child, in honour of which I attach a little coffin to my pillow. A cocoon, containing the body of a silkworm.