Embroidery as a feminist tool for subversion and healing

Abstract: This study is concerned with investigating how embroidery may be used as a tool for both subversion and healing within artmaking. My approach to artmaking and theories around stitching, unpacking trauma and confronting abuse are contextualised with reference to the works of South African artist Willemien de Villiers. Through my analysis of de Villiers works Bruid, Locker Room series, Manhood, Shallow Grave, Hooked/Unhooked baby and Bride 1 (Child Bride) I explore how embroidery is used as a means of articulating and engaging with trauma. I explore how embroidery in the West was used in the past as both a tool for inculcation of ideas of appropriate feminine conduct but also for liberation. This discussion of embroidery is foregrounded in Parker’s (1996) writing on the subject, in which she discusses how embroidery was introduced as a tool to control females but how many women and later feminist artists adapted needlework as a tool for communication. Notions of femininity, domesticity, healing and ambivalence prevalent within de Villiers’ work help inform my own practical body of work. A crucial theme in both de Villiers’ work and my own is notions of abuse and an ambivalence towards domesticity. Through the use of embroidery and domestic linens both de Villiers and I confront ideas around the female body, abjection and ultimately the ability to evoke a sense of healing through fabric-like surfaces. I make use of oil paint rendering surfaces of fabric held in embroidery hoops. Paint in my work acts as an appropriate medium for me to render realistic skin and fabric-like surfaces. My study draws from multiple feminist paradigms such as materialist, postmodern and psychoanalytical ones.M.Tech. (Visual Arts