DIci embroidery And there are still those who think of something ancient, pastime for women that the world was better to peek at it from the sucker of a needle. Without knowing that instead This art has long been released from the image of EducandAnd struggling with learning and cutting and sewing, and which embroidery has always rhymes with revolution.
He has already told him well Claire Hunter in his The threads of life (Bollati Boringhieri, 2019)a “classic” on textile art as an instrument of female struggle: sewing is “relational, political and emotional” he wrote, leading to Example the women of Plaza de Mayo who embroidered the name and date of birth of children and husbands who disappeared on their scarvesO Maria Stuarda, Queen of Scotland, who during her nineteen years of imprisonment embroidered her torment on jews of priceless workmanship.
Embroidery as a form of activism
Indeed, sewing and embroidering became acts of militancy that recognized themselves in the movement of the “Craftivism“, As the writer Betsy Greer baptized him in 2003, meaning a Political activism expressed through forms of craftsmanshipof which the embroidered banners with phrases of struggle from the English suffrages of the early 1900s were the forerunners.
But the story does not end and, indeed, This story is still writing today, thanks to all the women and associations of women who choose to resort to needle and thread to be heardexpress solidarity, create work, manifest opinions, passions, emotions. In a nutshell, to unroll that thread that keeps us connected.
A work by Sonia di Marco.
Like Sonia Dimarco, Milanese artisan (On Instagram: so_thatsme) who has passed a difficult past by unleashing the skein of his thoughts delicately, passion or anger (“the mood is discovered from the tension of the point” he explains) on his “pieces”, as she calls i Linen recoveries or precious fabrics on which it sews messages for other women “Because the gesture is more important than words and embroidery is a silent word.” Which, however, how a tam tam propagates in the world: «All women must know that unraveling knots is possible if the strength to share, enter into relationship, do not isolate themselves, ask, confront each other. This is my message: sharing ».
Portraits of incomplete faces, “because none of us ever” finished “”free hair like words in the wind, female figures that carry only the weight of flowers on their shoulders. They are titled The mom I would like, Paloma, if instead of the pains there were flowers, Mina. Yes, the singer, who is then one of the surprising “showers” of Sonia, where the work is the back, made of knots, pulled threads and strong and displacement passages such as soul scribbles. “In some works I have enhanced the back, which is often our true being, as we really are, regardless of how the others want us,” he says.
Embroidery to overcome the difficulties
Author embroidery on Tele-Queen, Pochette, Cushions, Bags. AND Plaboards: to send girls with girls simple messages As “enjoy life” and, above all, let yourself go. “I find that young people today be obsessed with the idea of control” concludes Sonia, “of weight, diet, aesthetics, look, clean … To distance themselves from their emotions they try to control reality, to channel it, because freedom is too vast. And the first control in general is born at the table. Here, at this moment I’m looking for the right embroidery for them ».
Opportunity for sharing and militancy
Repair, reunite, mend the wounds of the soul with needle and wire to put the pieces of one’s life together. And to leave behind large and small trauma, stories of violence, of abandonment. Is the idea of Atelier Molce (the word derives from Mólcere, “soothing, cure”), in Milan: a tailoring in which women who have undergone violence and abuse take their first steps towards economic independence through the learning of a profession. Here, listening and support can be found, thanks to the psychological counter managed by Paola Maraone, psychologist and psychotherapist as well as the creator of Tile With the manager of the tailoring Fernanda Muniz, and Adriana Morandi, stylist.
Molce atelier, therapeutic tailoring for women victims of violence and abuse.
“None bears a label with his story,” Maraone explains. «Some choose to share fragments of their life, others don’t. But everyone enters the net and warn to be united by what they have passed ». There is a thread, therefore, which also unites them in this welcoming space as a real home, between sewing machines, rolling of fabrics and tables on which women draw and sew clothes and bags now commissioned also for large events of culture and fashion.
One of the works of Shannon Downey
But embroidery & sewn are activities not only in the social sphere: during and after Lockdown, The rediscovery of manual work for psychic well -being has made “creative sewing” a therapy that proved to be effective Like a mantra to recite with your hands, becoming a Mindfulness technique. Always oriented towards a certain “militancy”, given the increase in requests on sites such as Etsy or Amazon of books such as The Subversive Stitch by Rozsika Parker, On how the sewing from experience of female submission has become an opportunity for ties between women, and kit for feminist inspiration embroidery like “Empowered Embroiderery” (subtitle “Embroidery enhanced for sewing portraits of iconic women of yesterday and today”), “The Feminist Cross Stitch” (“Destroy the patriarchy one point at a time”) or the “Art Girls Hoop Art” line to embroider political protest models, such as the anti -ropistic one of the “craftivist” Hannah Hill and Shannon Downey (Instagram @badasscrossTitch).
From embroidery to civil installations
Embroidery that sometimes become installations: this is the case of Raquel RodrigoStreet Artist of Valencia, graduated in Fine Arts, creator of the study and brand Arquicostura (Liaison between architecture and sewing, in Spanish) which has been carrying the craftsmanship of the cross point for fifteen years in the city spaces. Call from the brands to “sew” on walls and showcases (also in via Montenapoleone in Milan) its giant format cotton flowers, Rodrigo has a not only creative mission: «When we embroider we make sure that the sewn threads form a relief, we want this invisible female art to become visible“He said.
Raquel Rodrigo in his study Arquicostura in Valencia.
And judging by his cascade of decks of roses embroidered on the entire facade of a house in Estavayer-Le-Lac, Switzerlandor by the embroidery along eleven meters made for Alhambra beer with the word “Hay Cosas Que Necesses Tiempo” (there are things that require time), that is, craftsmanship such as that of the brewer, or finally, come on Graters of field flowers in cotton wire that “grow” on the walls of a building in Munichthere is no doubt that Rodrigo has succeeded very well.
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