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Prejudice is woven into the fabric of society. That’s the underlying message of “Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse,” the fibrous new exhibition at Jewish Museum Milwaukee (JMM). At the surface level, the exhibit’s agenda is “to debunk the misconceptions surrounding fiber arts, relegated as ‘easy women’s work,’ a craft, not a fine art form,” says Molly Dubin, the museum’s curator.

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“Women Pulling at the Threads” consists of dozens of woven and sewn artifacts by female artists. “We have two men in the exhibit—we didn’t want to be exclusionary!” Dubin says. The Justice Bells, a set of three large hanging lampshades fashioned to resemble the Liberty Bell (or the restrictive hoop skirts once worn by women) was made a sister-brother duo, Cuban Americans Alina Rodriguez Rojo and Damian Rojo. The cloth is covered in cryptic references to 1920s America—including the dollar bill’s all-seeing eye—at the time when women gained the right to vote. The other male contributor, Israeli American Jac Lahav, produced Sojourner, a portrait in velvet, acrylic and felt of Sojourner Truth, the Black Abolitionist.

“Women Pulling at the Threads” is an almost entirely original exhibit created by JMM in collaboration with the Contemporary Art Modern Project (CAMP), a Miami-based organization focused on emerging and mid-level artists. Nothing in “Women Pulling at the Threads” is older than 2019 and the oldest pieces were produced for a CAMP exhibit intended for the 2020 centennial of women gaining voting rights in the U.S. To expand and localize the exhibit, JMM “put out a call to Midwest fiber artists,” Dubin says. The majority of artists accepted were from Wisconsin, including many from Milwaukee.

Link: READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE