A woman with curly blonde hair smiling outdoors near a tree and a bridge, with a cityscape in the background.

Life Shroud

Textile Collaboration with weaver Ana Petidis

A woven fabric with a beige background, featuring a plaid pattern with black, red, and yellow lines and a decorative black and beige embroidered patch near the bottom.
A textile wall hanging with a grid pattern, featuring squares and bands of color, including red, black, and yellow, displayed on a wall.

‘Life Shroud' is a collaborative piece created by Australian weaver Ana Petidis (right) and Bonita Ralph (left), a Family Support professional in Paediatric Palliative care and former funeral director.

Materials: linen, silk, organic cotton, organic baby alpaca, Angelina copper fibre.

This handwoven cloth was born from a collaboration between lifelong friends who grew up to be a weaver and a funeral director. A shared story woven by Ana into cloth to accompany Bonita through life. The cloth may be used as part of Bonita's shroud for her body at death or a keepsake for her children, cut up and shared as part of her legacy.

Inspired by the traditional practices of many cultures and people, this hand woven cloth imagines its utility and meaning across one's life and is imbued with stories from birth to death and life in between. The cloth has to be many things; practical in its aesthetic to not limit its use to purely a thing of beauty; soft and comforting to touch; and strong and able to function under strain. One cloth can be used to aid a woman in labour, a person in need of first aid, to swaddle or carry an infant, to transport objects across distances, as a shield against the elements or unwanted gazes, as a comfort and finally as a death shroud. One, well made cloth. Woven to honour the past, present and future of its custodian, Ana's dear friend Bonita.

The 'Life Shroud' has been exhibited several times but lives its day to day life on the back of Bonita's living room chair in the heart of her home.

Exhibitions:

Creative Rememberence 2024: A global, virtual art exhibition about palliative care and dying, organised by the Creative Toolkit initiative.

Craft Victoria - Warped Perspectives 2020

Ballarat: Craft Lab 2019

Ana’s work can be found on Instagram - @analogcloth