When women take embroidery and other textile arts beyond their accustomed uses; out of private, out of domestic, out of the female sphere, and make them large (like Sheila Hicks) unruly (like Louise Bourgeois) or ambitious (like the Bayeux Tapestry) it is a performative act.
It performs gender. It demands acknowledgment on a scale that tiny textiles do not.
Janet Berlo
I don’t agree that the textile pieces need to be large to be a statement. There could be a significant encounter with something small but intricate, or unusual or poignant in some way. I still remember a friend’s work, of tiny matchboxes, with stiched tops, that I saw in the eighties.
ReplyDeleteHowever I love your work Judy, and the scale of it is definitely part of its power and presence.
I agree. It sounds to me as if you remember those tiny matchboxes because they were so unusual. Unruly, like Louise Bourgeois’s pieces. Still performative. I would love to have seen them.
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