A show of knitted and sewn works of art will open at Carleton College’s Art Gallery beginning Friday, March 30. “Gender Stitchery: Artists knit/sew Art” brings together nine artists from New York, Arizona, and points in between who knit and sew works exploring gender roles and stereotypes, decorative arts conventions and craft traditions, and fair labor practices.
Stitchery, only recently deemed a legitimate artistic medium, is showing up in surprising and varied works by long-established and emergent artists. Elaine Reichek, based in New York, is a trail-blazing feminist artist who has transformed the sampler from a demure product of domestic artistry into a witty corrective aimed against patriarchal values. Maggy Rozycki Hiltner, a young artist living in Montana, converts cast-off embroidered cloths into personal stories and graphic commentary on gender stereotypes. Her work is at once nostalgic and slyly subversive, cute and disturbing. Mark Newport, who teaches at Arizona State University, proves that feminism has liberated stitchery as a medium for male as well as female artists. His handknit acrylic superhero suits invoke not only ultramasculine stereotypes but also the protective gestures of mothers whose handmade sweaters keep their children from harm. "Superheroes suggest strength, but knitting them or covering them with embroidery provides a softness that is contradictory to their image,” says Newport.
Gender Stitchery celebrates the handmade. A vital sense of texture and process is conveyed through embroidered touches and knit passages. But not all the stitches on view were done by hand. Thanks to ever-advancing technology, sewing machines can be programmed to sew in patterns originating in an artist’s imagination. Northfield, Minnesota, artist Christie Hawkins, for example, uses computer-driven sewing machines as well as a lathe and hammer to produce her minimalist wall pieces honoring home, handcrafts and the meditative process.
Other artists whose work will be on display are Kent Henricksen, Cat Mazza, Karen Reimer, as well as collaborators Ghada Amer and Reza Farkhondeh. The exhibit’s opening reception, held at 8:30 p.m. Friday, March 30 in the Art Gallery, will follow a talk by Newport entitled “Super Heroics” at 7:30 p.m. in Boliou Hall, room 104.
For information on related events, see the Art Gallery’s web site.
The Carleton College Art Gallery is open daily Monday through Wednesday from noon to 6 p.m., Thursday and Friday from noon to 10 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. For more information about the exhibit, call Carleton Art Gallery curator Laurel Bradley at 507-646-4342.
