....in the swallowing...she carries the whole...the hole (2021-2022) is an epic diptych tapestry, rich and densely layered with detail. Ornamental features – glitter, strings of beads, appliquéd fabrics – are affixed to the textured surface, a beauty trap that Patterson sets for the viewer.

Installed over a custom-designed wallpaper, the wall-based installation bursts with flora and fauna. Disguised among these landscapes - plants, spiders, cockroaches, headless snakes, monarch butterflies, a single raven – are the fragmented figures of Black women in lament. Although Patterson has been exploring the representation of mourning and its intersection with race and gender for many years, the experience of the pandemic and successive lockdowns – during which she was unable to return from the States to visit her family in her home country of Jamaica – has deepened the artist’s personal connection to the subject.