Portrait of Two Wives

2025

Human hair on pillowcase

67 x 40 x 12 cm

Portrait of Two Wives is a portrait of the artist and her wife sharing a pillow as they sleep, faces turned toward each other. Cakebread has used hair from the heads of herself and her wife, lovingly collected over time, to embroider the lines and shapes.

Using hair to create artworks harkens back to many points in history, notably the creation of memorial jewelry and artwork during the Victorian era. By using hair as thread, the women become part of the artwork, creating a deeply personal documentation of their connection to each other, a kind of living memorial. 

Cakebread seeks to add to the visibility of textile art as well as queer women in art with her sculptural embroidery. Ideas from the exhibition outline, particularly about the invisibility of textiles both in everyday settings and the world of art, spoke to the artist as a queer woman. Artists identifying as queer women through history are often difficult to find due to being unable to disclose their queerness, biased records, and the male, heterogenous way art history is often taught. Just as this history overlooks textile art, so does it overlook us.