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Do you know what posh means?, 2019-2020, Machine and hand-sewn quilt, made from discarded white jeans and pink pants, with laser engraved text, and 8 steel L brackets
Do you know what posh means?, 2019, Textile installation at a semi private, extended dining-room table in a coastal Maine restaurant
This textile-based sculpture incorporates the material codes of white jeans and "Nantucket Reds", the size and shape of a restaurant table, and the implied narrative of quoted text to investigate the aesthetics of upper-class, white, New England society. The work’s formal elements tackle the power dynamics resulting from Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Tourism that impact our daily social interactions. The quilt’s critique draws from personal experience; particularly, the laser engraved text “Do you know what posh means?” is sourced from an interaction with a customer who was intrigued by the obscurity of my name stating, "Willoughby is a very posh name [pause] Do you know what posh means?" The statement suggested that not only should I strive to meet the provenance of my name but that as a younger woman, living in a rural environment, and working in the service industry I must lack the same extensive vocabulary. The quilt subverts the position of power by producing a tablecloth from the uniform of the privileged for a dinner for those ordinarily in service.