Wool, Memory, and Empty Chairs: Melissa Joseph’s Textiles Bend Time in New York

A felted wool portrait might look like a painting at first glance, but Melissa Joseph’s work quietly upends that expectation. Drawing from her Indian American upbringing in Pennsylvania and a treasure trove of family photos, Joseph crafts textiles that blur the lines between painting, sculpture, and memory. Her pieces often center on domestic furniture—empty chairs, worn vanities, toy benches—serving as silent witnesses to presence and absence. These objects, sometimes more prominent than people, evoke the invisible boundaries of belonging, especially for those whose identities don’t fit neatly into a single category. In her exhibition "Irish Exit," Joseph transforms a vintage vanity into a portal to her mother’s living room, replacing the mirror with felt and memory, and letting absence speak louder than presence. By stitching together aged objects and personal archives, Joseph turns each artwork into a study of longing, identity, and the spaces we occupy—or leave behind. In her hands, textiles become time machines, quietly rearranging the furniture of memory. #ContemporaryArt #TextileArt #CulturalIdentity #Culture