Fiber art

rdf:langString Fiber art

rdf:langString Ann Newdigate

rdf:langString Rozsika Parker, The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine. 1984. Print

rdf:langString Kinda art, sorta tapestry: tapestry as shorthand access to the definitions, languages, institutions, attitudes, hierarchies, ideologies, constructions, classifications, histories, prejudices and other bad habits of the West, New Feminist Art Criticism: Critical Strategies. Page 178.

rdf:langString Kinda art, sorta tapestry: tapestry as shorthand access to the definitions, languages, institutions, attitudes, hierarchies, ideologies, constructions, classifications, histories, prejudices and other bad habits of the West, New Feminist Art Criticism: Critical Strategies, page 181

rdf:langString ”I have never worried that embroidery's association with femininity, sweetness, passivity and obedience may subvert my work's feminist intention. Femininity and sweetness are part of women's strength. Passivity and obedience, moreover, are the very opposite of the qualities necessary to make a sustained effort in needlework. What's required are physical and mental skills, fine aesthetic judgment in colour, texture and composition; patience during long training; and assertive individuality of design . Quiet strength need not be mistaken for useless vulnerability."

rdf:langString "Then in 1984 when Rozsika Parker's The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine, focusing on textiles, could not be resisted by even the most conservative of Western practitioners; modernism was finally disrupted in the Low Art sphere. The empowering implications spread beyond European textile artists and affected curators, teachers, and art administrators in a much wider Western context. The post-modern influence, even though in only a few instances, started to blend the firmly drawn lines of hierarchical distinctions. Twenty years after I had taken up art as my vocation, I began to feel the oppositional codes of the separate spheres slowly eroding as I wrote my thesis and investigated the domestication of tapestry from its previous high art status as a European male practice.

rdf:langString "For me, now, it does not matter whether what I do in my studio complies with a minor or a major language – whether it is kinda art or sorta textile. Whenever I feel a definition coming on, I try to remember to ask myself 'Who constructed the definition?', 'Who needs the oppositional distinctions and is going to benefit from them?', and 'Why should I comply with those codes and conventions?”

rdf:langString Fiber art (fibre art in British spelling) refers to fine art whose material consists of natural or synthetic fiber and other components, such as fabric or yarn. It focuses on the materials and on the manual labor on the part of the artist as part of the works' significance, and prioritizes aesthetic value over utility.