Cassia Lawson

'Garlic Socks' is a project very close to my heart that explores my childhood memories of being treated with natural medicines. As I lay in bed at age 7, my mother gently applies herbs soaked in castor oil to my stomach and begins to encase them in three layers of German wool. She tells me it is to ease my stomach pain, and places a warm hand over the wrapped remedies, rubbing clockwise. There are slices of garlic tucked into my socks on the soles of my feet and the smell of lavender oil wafting up from a cool compress that she regularly soaks in cold water and applies to my feverish head. I already feel the gentle wave of sleep lapping at my consciousness and the pain starts to dissipate and my eyes start to close. Hydrotherapy, herbal remedies and medicinal wool are all explored within my nostalgic experiences and history during their prominent use in the Victorian era. I wanted to evoke that feeling of being surrounded by comfort and trust within the bounds of gentle healing and also explore the unconventionality through subverting shape and perspective.