Punk Lives!
I often talk about the under-appreciated art that lies to waste in the op shops and thrift shops of the world. Beautiful work that took many many hours to complete, lies discarded, undervalued and dismissed as ‘just craft’.
It is for this reason I started the Tapysteria Hack series of work. Taking an old and discarded piece of handwork, modifying it slightly and giving it a new audience with a new appreciation.
It must be acknowledged though that there is some truly terrible craft out there. I know everyone has to start somewhere and we all make mistakes. I adore the CraftFail site for the fact that it celebrates the fact that we aren’t perfect. And lordy knows there is enough pressure in some craft worlds for perfection. As if there isn’t enough pressure from the media for us to look perfect; apparently our craft should too..
However, this doesn’t mean the bad craft out there doesn’t deserve to be mocked every now and then.
I’ve always really digged the idea of stitching graffiti. Any idea that takes a traditional art and gives it a whole new perspective excites me. But I don’t think it’s something I’d ever do myself. Like the retro computer game stuff, there’s enough people out there doing it and doing it very well. But it has got me thinking a bit about defacing and concepts of property and ownership and how they translate to craft. And I decided this piece was just ripe for it.
I found this – what would you call it – horror of a stitchery, in an op shop one day and was just blown away by how truly terribly executed it was. I’m sure the person who did it has some really good reasons why. But just as a found item, it was pretty horrific.
I decided this was definitely an example of the punk rock side to embroidery. Just forget the rules and conventions of technique. Just say NO! to even stitching and tension!
Yeah Punk Lives!!
Stitched using my bestest scrawl with the most appropriate thread I could think of DMC666 (I truly wonder if there are stitchers out there who abstain from using that colour on principle).
The original stitches are amazing. There is no uniformity of technique, tension, stitch size, direction or colour. Excellent!
I’m not entirely sure what to do with it. But thinking it might just come in handy during an exciting upcoming project I’m involved with. But it was sure fun to do!
sometimes they come back
I haven’t been as active here as I should be during the last couple of months. But now I have two new projects to share with you!
This first one is a simple cross stitch that I made some week ago, just to get myself going after a long period of zero inspiration. It’s a quote from some graffiti in the bathroom of a pretty run down Indian restaurant where me and my friends used to go to drink cheap beer a couple of years ago. I think it’s funny and serious at the same time – as a Swedish writer once said; to be a woman and not be a feminist is like shitting yourself in the face. All women should be feminists by birth, then it’s up to you to decide how hardcore you wanna be about it…
This second one is inspired by a song from Swedish punks Sju Svåra År, and they got the quote from Joan Jett – I don’t give a damn about my bad reputation! I love both songs and I think that this cross stitch turned out really well. I wrote a little statement about it on my own blog:
But more important is the fact that a woman that’s not afraid of expressing herself in any way, especially sexually, is still seen as a “bad woman” in societies eyes – she’s a whore, a slut, a sinner & if something bad happens to her, well maybe she deserved it. It must be very confusing growing up in todays (western) world, where the girls are bombarded with images of the “perfect” female body, with the demand on being sexy, being available, to always dress & act according to the expectations of the male eye, but at the same time balance on that thin line that separates them from “loose women”. Not to recognize their own sexuality & say fuck it, i like sleeping around, i like being myself in any way, because if they do they might be marked for life. It is amazing that the notion that a woman who sleeps around is a whore & a man that does the same is a stud is still such a unchallenged part of society. So, to not give a damn about one’s reputation, whether it be sexually or in any other way, is one of the things that might be most important in the feminist struggle today.
