Eight Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse, is a group exhibition exploring elements of society through the textile arts. Featured in the exhibition are artists: Aurora Molina, Katika, Natalia Schonowski, Nathalie Alfonso, Paola Moreira, Laura Marsh, April Hartley, and Janna Isbey.
Applying Marxist literary criticism to textiles, this exhibition presents reflections of society—its tendencies, failings and class—as mirrors of the social institutions and practices from which the works evolve. The works presented in the exhibition also highlight how notions of class and social structure alienate the individual, thus stimulating the ever present modern phenomenon of ‘angst’, and what Sartre refers to as ‘nausea.’
Textile work, historically, is inextricable from the lived experience of women transnationally, and it is still relegated to the realm of the “feminine”. Given the present day patriarchal society we all exist within, it is interesting and necessary to turn to the matriarchal voice, often subjected to the sidelines as a silent observer, and take notice of what they, in their assigned silence have to say and comment on about our present day social realities.
Colombian-German artist Natalia Schnowski found inspiration for her Face Shields project in Indonesia, interested in the use of masks as functional, rather than embedded in ceremony as they have been traditionally. Her work seeks to explore the concept of identity as we know it, plunging under the surface of nationality to question the ways in which cultural identity affects our individuality. This is best highlighted by Fiber Diary, which exudes a collective, and almost depersonalized, nausea.
New Zealander Janna Isbey interrogates boundaries, physical and imagined, and their influence on our notions of place, identity, and impermanence. She questions the concept of “self” and its capability to both endure and transform as one moves through landscapes and time, noting our collective existence as “transitory bodies passing through the physical ecosystems of the world”. Isbey abstracts both in the name of reality, allowing the dichotomies existing within our surroundings—natural and man-made, harmony and discord—to manifest simultaneously.
April Hartley created her Solidarity Quilts for the historic Women’s March on Washington in 2017, employing what she refers to as the “resilience of ‘women’s work’” to protest on behalf of gender equality and against the policies of the Trump administration. She combines traditional textile methods with contemporary practices, aiming to invoke the spirit of feminine resistance in the past and present through the history nestled within her chosen medium.
Spatial and social conscientiousness underscore Laura Marsh’s embroidered and woven installations, which she invites the viewer to interact with physically and inwardly. Hailing from a working-class background and two generations of sewers, Marsh works with the intent to mediate conversations on infrastructural issues such as class mobility, gentrification, and the need for diversity, through the tactile experiences she creates. Together, Dream Diversely and Flags I Would Not act as both a mirror and response to the conversations dominating the public sphere in the United States as they pertain to inclusion, racism, and more importantly, intention.
Nathalie Alfonso investigates notions of invisibility and visibility by way of physical labor—her own—questioning its toll on the body along with its value. Cleaning the Line is a one hour and thirty-six minute video wherein Alfonso scrubs a twelve-inch charcoal line previously drawn on a white wall, a brute attempt at returning the surface to its original state. The result is Stains, quilts sewn from the rags she’s used in each performance, which in and of themselves serve as a testament to the labor behind her pieces.
Chilean artist Paola Moreira’s relationship with fiber-weaving is an mix of her own therapeutic practice and the indigenous Mapuche weaving tradition, which she finds a celebration of emotion and perspective, and is deeply linked to women’s roles as bearers of life and culture. Her arprilleras belong to a Chilean style of embroidering on recycled materials used to communicate social and political dissent that originated in churches during the Pinochet regime in the 1970s. Thus, Moreira’s arpilleras stress the importance of unity and exhibit an organic perspective on physical, emotional, and sexual violence enacted against women.
“An abundance of creative energy and ideological chaos” has most impacted fiber artist Katika. Her reflections on memory, attachment, cultural icons old and new—human connection and interaction—are entangled with the frustration bred by the perceived coziness of crochet and the images she creates of familiar icons out of worn threads. Katika’s intention is that all works be connected under this theme.
Cuban artist Aurora Molina stitches a clear connection between constructed social ideals and their impact on community, drawing attention to the kind of “unfettered” individualism” she aims to challenge with her work. Molina invites the viewer to examine our post-modern relationship with physical aging and the nature of the human body, concerned with the “objectification of beauty” and the growing denial of inevitable aging, as well as the treatment of the elderly in our society.
This group exhibition is a joint brainchild of participating artists Aurora Molina and Katika and is curated also jointly through Aurora Molina and the gallery.
Statement by Melanie Prapopoulos and Maria Gabriela Di Giammarco