Women & Domesticity What’s your Perspective?

Women and domesticity - investigating common experiences and perspectives through creative collaboration. A collection of hand-embroidered dusters.The goal of this project is to explore the common domestic experiences and expectations of the modern day woman within her home. It investigates underlying narratives by engaging the community in embroidering their personal perspectives on the relationship between women and domesticity onto a duster. It brings together practices of self-expression and a form of auto-ethnography, with each duster positioning the self as the subject matter, discussing not just the chores but expectations, prejudices and the dynamics of domestic relationships. Each contribution reflects personal contemplation inspired by the lengthy process of hand sewing, creating an artistic response that offers unique insight into modern day home life. Traditional dusters were selected as a metaphor for domesticity because they are mundane, yet visually appealing in their brilliant bright yellow. Collectively they proclaim a multitude of opinions, stitched by hand with red thread to represent traditional women’s work and femininity. The research reveals a broad scope of perspectives including fulfilment, resentment, nostalgia, and antipathy. Common underlying themes communicate a sense of invisibility, un-appreciation and boredom, but also of nurturing and necessity associated with quality of life in the home. Domestic experience is common to us all; in the home we can research the life we live. ‘Researchers are in some ways always part of the lives and world they are researching’ (Pink 31). Embroidery has the power to embellish and to make beautiful. Through this project, the dusters are imbued with new meaning and significance. They have become more than simply a cloth kept under the sink - they have become a voice. Bibliography: Pink, Sarah. Situating Everyday Life. London: Sage Publications Ltd. 2012. Print.