Text-iles
2005/6
Archival inkjet printing on Dobbin Mill papers
Dimensions: ranging from 60 x 8 x 18 cm to 90 x 8 x 18 cm, each
Installation
In this installation, I utilized proverbs from cultures around the world that focus on woman's work. It consists of a series of 11 wood and aluminum industrial thread spools, each with a hanging translucent abaca scarf, printed with a proverb about women's work. Each text was manipulated to create textile-weaving patterns on the scarves.
List of proverbs used:
- Need teaches a naked woman weaving. (Czech)
- Educated woman, stupid housewife. (Dutch)
- Let women spin and not speak. (Gikuyu, Kenya)
- Thread and linen are the face of a girl. (Komi, RF)
- A wife is a stranger until she gives birth to a child. (Persian)
- Women have stronger neck muscles than men, to carry the firewood. (Venda, South Africa)
- The husband does not weave but is not without a shirt, the wife weaves but never wears two shirts at a time. (Russian)
- Women are said to be good at only spinning, crying and gossiping about their husbands. (German)
- Battlefield for man, childbirth for woman. (Maori, New Zealand)
- The wife grinds the husband sleeps; the wife weaves, the husband dances. (Russian)
- When God made the woman, he put beside her the distaff to distinguish her from man. (Romanian)