Hi there! Back after a little break, and I would just like to say Happy Cinco de Mayo, Happy Taco Tuesday, etc. A heads up--we will
not be talking about last night's Met Ball. So, let's move on to what we are talking about--embroidered books.
If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know my loves include: 1. Embroidery and 2. Books transformed into wild pieces of art. I've always revered books--the printed pages were not to be messed with, never for anything other than reading. So, I guess I admire how artists flagrantly disregard that reverence, tearing apart and transforming texts into entirely new creations, in the process creating new meanings, interpretations and yes--stories.
I never realized book art is such a thing, but I'm always stumbling upon incredible ways artists are making pages their canvas. Let's take a look at three visionaries who are using books as a backdrop for their intricate threadwork.
Mireille Vautier is a French artist and designer living in New York City. In addition to books, she embroiders on fabric and plastic, almost exclusively in red thread. Says the artist,
"To embroider, for me, is a means of reflecting on memory,
such as
families’ memories...I use most of the time a red thread.
This choice of the color is instinctive. Red is very powerful...
Embroidery is also a commentary on time, it is an anachronistic
and
inconceivable thing in today’s world where taking one’s time
is a
luxury. It is going against the grain, asserting the necessity
of
slowing things down in order to look at them."
From the
Haley Institute of Contemporary Art.
Like many women, artist
Lauren DiCioccio remembers watching her mother embroider, started her own with simple cross-stitching on cloth, which somehow developed into these marvelous creations. In her
artist statement, she says:
"In learning a skill
or craft like this, the common rules insist that
the student seek perfection-
every stitch in line, every knot tied,
the back of the embroidery as tidy as
the front. I think the actual
perfection in the material is found in exactly the opposite of these
standards-
when the thread tangles or becomes matted and overworked,
or where the basting
stitch is left to stand on its own; when the fabric
wrinkles and twists rather
than ironed flat and taut—those moments
end up being the most beautiful parts
in a piece. The mistakes and
the
looseness show the human hand and reflect the human spirit, and
that’s the
perfection."
Whether she's sewing or collaging, everything
Lisa Kokin creates blows my mind. From her series
Altered Books, she states:
"I alter, appropriate, and combine text from books about
religion,
history, self-help, business and sociopolitical
ideology. I am
fascinated by the random juxtapositions
of words that occur when parts
of text are removed to
create other stories, or when texts from two
sources
such as business and religion are combined. It gives
me great
pleasure to subvert the original meanings of
books which were written to
keep people in their place,
and to do it with humor and levity."
That's all for today, but I'll be back tomorrow with move to love.
xoxoLexa
