M a m a ’s a r t s

in de geborgen kamers
version nov 19
e-version

a Gaidaro project
© 2008 Stichting Gaidaro, The Hague.

All rights reserved. No photographs of Stichting Gaidaro

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Gaidaro.
Ma ma’s a r ts
c ontemporary art exhibition
15 November -14 December 2008
What: An art exhibition of works made with textile
techniques like embroidering, sewing, weaving, knit-
ting or any related technique that involves handwork.
The project is an experiment of compiling works with
connecting thread the idea of textile within the notion
of non-product. However this very specific theme of
textile, don’t be surprised if you also see videos or are
confronted with an action-performance.
Concept: The idea is to show how traditional media
of creation -specifically historically female art crafts -
are incorporated in the contemporary artistic process.
Description: “mama’s arts” is yet another project of
the Stichting Gaidaro, an organisation created and
managed by artists, directed to the search of the basics
in art. It is the quest for balance between the new
imagination that the digital world provokes and the
traditional imagery transported to the contemporary
days through hand works. It aims to be a reminder of
the pleasure that tangible – time consuming activities
can give and a support to the re-evaluation of the
incredible abilities of creation that our grandmothers
and mothers have shown in their known casual way.
Who: 32 artists from many sides of the world, brought
together by Stichting Gaidaro and the project “gebor-
gen kamers” which transforms the rooms of aban-
doned houses or shops to temporary art spaces.

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Gian n i B a re l l i
Italy-the Netherlands

My Mother- My Sister-
what is left over
Telling a story always means a re-construction. The indi-
vidual story is the individual effort to re-construct the
outside world.There are threads everywhere and they are
different as relationships are different: they're resistant
and tough threads, weak or strong, long or short thread.
In the work My Mother– My Sister– what is left over the
focus is on the dependency between them, on the
research about the biunique relation between me and
you, from the generating mother to the generated daughter.
The action of sewing is connected with the feeling of
healing a split,maybe a wound, the wound of the separa-
tion between the daughter who grows up and the mother
who gets older; two different generation who can just
transmit information through each other but not share
them. The structure of the two t-shirt limits the possible
movements as well as the embarrassment and the incon-
venience of being in the same body-structure who defines
the space and the relationship.
What is left over from the liaison are the threads, a group
of veins who links in a physical space, life who has been
transmitted, information transmitted by blood, in this
work the blood became the glow, the blood sews…

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Geo rgi n a B e l l
U.K.

S ewing skirt
explore personal experience and universal memories.
I work with embroidery and print to produce gar-
ments of clothing, drawings and textiles that have a The works that I produce can be diverse in their use
personal narrative. of materials, methods and concepts but the link
between each piece is always the process of drawing
Currently I am interested in examining my own identi-
and the idea of journeys. Initially I draw with tradi-
ty and its relationship to the places that I live, work
tional media such as pens, pencils, ink, and then
and travel to. My work explores the wider concept of
transform my drawings with screen-printing, dyes, the
journeys and mapping and is based on my personal
sewing machine, the computer, felt, embroidery silks
experience of both physical and psychological travel-
and cotton.
ling. Cartography, weather charts, geographical and
archaeological drawings also are visual influences. Drawing with stitches and embroidery is always a cen-
tral and valuable activity within my practice. It pro-
My work centres on the belief that identity is transient
vides a means of observation and reflection; it is used
in its nature, a fluid entity in constant transit. Key to
in planning and mapping, and to embellish and com-
my understanding of my own identity is the thought
municate my ideas.
that humans are not fixed points but made up out of
a series of changes and developments; a process of
metamorphosis, a continual journey, a fusing together
of experiences.
A key area of interest within my practice is the idea of
clothing as a means of communication and the fact
that clothing provides individuals with their anthropo-
logical, social and religious identity. I use clothing and
embellish it with methods traditionally associated with
the feminine, for example, embroidery. The end result
is a garment that is transformed into a psychological
map loaded with codes, signs, symbols an words that

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Jerr y B l e e m
U.S.A.
D ecorative nationalism
My country, the United States of America, provides
the context for my examining the implications of
national allegiance. The nation’s symbol, the flag,
functions as my material. In my Nationalism series (of
which Decorative Nationalism is a part), I want to
explore the link between the U.S.A.’s government
(and its actions on the world stage) and the lives of its
citizens. How does patriotism span our public and
private lives?
After cutting the nation’s banner into thin strips, I
rely upon crochet to reconfigure the familiar surface
into a more vague, abstracted one. As a domestic
craft, this technique allows me to refer to the real and
desired comfort of our homes. When soldiers fail to
return from war, or return injured, the home becomes
the arena where difficult, emotional adjustments must
be made. This task falls on the shoulders of a few
people, usually a single family; the nation as a whole
knows little of this household agony.
Cutting up the flag aligns my work with those who
have used the flag to express their opposition to
national policies. Though clearly not treating the
Stars and Stripes in a traditional or widely acceptable
manner, desecrating the flag is not my goal.
Whenever the viewers’ recognition of the material
occurs, I hope they also see a manifestation of time.
10
The product of my slicing and crocheting was created
as I thought about the intersection between the pri-
vate lives of individuals and the public life of a nation.
This series documents my reflecting and my quest for
understanding rather than an ideological position.
The flags themselves are often used and hence are
faded, discolored, stained and worn. No longer crisp
icons featured in cinematic shots, these tattered ban-
ners have been flown. No longer generalized symbols,
they bear the history of a time and20place. Ironically,
being used to signify some shade of national allegiance
depreciated the fabric.
Decorative Nationalism is a multi-element, work in
progress. My goal is to make 50 ruffled spheres, a ref-
erence to the number of states in the union. Each
form is made from a single U.S.A. flag. These small
nonfunctional sculptures mimic the kind of objects we
use to personalize our living spaces. Decorative
Nationalism acknowledges that a nation’s flag can be
displayed as a patriotic gesture, or as an advertising
device for commercial ends, or as an ornament, or to
fulfill an expectation.
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Sara B o ma n s
Belgium

I nnermost Thoughts
Innermost thoughts is een levensgrote gehaakte sculp-
tuur van een zwangere vrouw die aan het breien is. Ze
is in gedachten verzonken, zoekt geen contact met
haar publiek. De bijna automatische, ritmische han-
deling van handwerk geeft dan ook alle ruimte voor
het denken. Ik brei dus ik ben? Denkt zij aan haar
leven dat ingrijpend zal veranderen? Ze breit om haar
kind te beschermen tegen kou, maar tegelijk doet ze
dit met een breinaald, ooit gebruikt voor abortus.

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Sim o n e te n B o s ch
the Netherlands

W ereldwijde Rok
De Wereldwijde Rok wordt gemaakt door 25 vluchtel-
ingvrouwen of arbeidsmigranten wonende in Den
Haag, Voorburg en omstreken. De reusachtige rok ver-
taalt het gevoel van de vrouwen van het vaak onvri-
jwillig achterlaten van eigen land, cultuur en familie
en het vormgeven van nieuw leven in Nederland. De
Wereldwijde Rok is bedoeld om samen aan een eind-
product te werken. Niet alleen het hoofd maar ook de
handen gaan aan de slag. De Wereldwijde Rok wordt
een samenwerking en samensmelting van diverse cul-
turen, maar ook een expressiemogelijkheid om het
oude leven een plekje te geven in het nieuwe leven.

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Tsz M a n C ha n
Hong Kong– U.K.

M oo
From the series 100TSZ
MANS

100TSZ
MANS is a
series of multi-media
objects which are dairies,
letters, notes,
poems, stories, selfportraits,
portraits and
reflections on the idea of
identity and migration.
salvaged and donated
artworks by various artists,
found objects and
accidents from artist’s
studio are often used in
creation of the collection.

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Ma r ia C h o r i a no po u lo u
Greece

M ama is embroidering her navel string

Wood, found plastic frame, old piece of cloth, needle
and gold thread, small piece of handwork...Materials
which have completed a life-circle, are recomposed
through artistic procedures and reborn as works of art,
along with photos which are digitally processed.
Proskinitaria, mnimouria,thimitaria, xoklissia...Names
which we can come across throughout Greece for
these small monuments that we can find all over the
country in the sides of the motorways, and not only.
A Greek custom that marks the time and the place,
when the sudden transmission from life to death,
comes out at this point as a masterpiece of architecture.
Works of art that arise from monuments or monu-
ments that arise from the composition of these ele-
ments, through artistic procedure and thinking.

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Su za n n e C ol l i n s
Ireland

A nd then, you were there

I like to imagine that this artwork generates in the
viewer, the idea that someone may be there, like an
apparition or a spirit, like a memory of someone. It is
meant to be a subtle and delicate piece, a reminder
that human life is fragile.

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Ange la D a r by
Northern Ireland

T.O.I.L.
This prolific symbol is synonymous with the act of
rebellion and many public walls have been used to
compound this reading. It represents a time when
youth movements such as punk blazed a trail against
authority and chaos seemed to pervade that era
because of this. However the rebellious intentions of
anarchy has now lost it’s sense of fear, it’s impact as a
symbol of terror and alarm has been re-evaluated and
it now epitomizes a fashionable symbol embodied
within mainstream pop culture.
The pattern on the bones illustrates a quaint, idyllic,
pastoral farming community pre-industrial revolution.
This rural scene of peasant stereotypes no longer exists
yet this is a popular toile present in many middle-class
and or upper-class homes.
By placing the two concepts together the artist sug-
gests that anarchy has perhaps become a romantic and
even an extinct ideal.

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Lu c ia El e fa n te
Italy

H ole
Wire netting, iron wire

A rip into the wire netting.

A macramé embroidery, traditional Italian lace, is a
patch.

The wire netting has a geometric design that creates

many regular hexagons in clean contrast with the
flower design given by the macramé.
The macramé is a technique of embroidery realized
with various knots, "hole" has made by alternating reef
knot.
In this artwork is emphasize the difference between
the industrial working and handicraft, between the
perfection and regularity of industrial wire netting in
opposition with the irregular and imperfect design of
macramé, unique like every embroidery is.
The materials used for the embroidery aren’t the tradi-
tional ones: the cotton, silk, nylon thread has replaced
by iron wire.
The metal inscription “hole”, that remember the
patched hole, “has sewed” to decorate a wire netting

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Ma r ia Ezc u rra
Mexico
I get dressed, therefore I exist:
The ethics and aesthetics of clothing art.
In my work I use clothing as a way of talking about
people. I comment about issues that have caught my
attention and that are related to individuals or specific
social groups. When I use garments for making art it
is because they provide a series of different layers of
lecture, which can go from personal implications to
communitarian meanings. Through history, garments
have moved from a purely functional material into a
much more aesthetic and commercial one, that is why
I like to use them for talking about the way we func-
tion -or dysfunction- in contemporary societies. Placed
in a specific social context, garments can be a very
effective element for talking about the intense materi-
alism that surrounds us, which is imposing an inhu-
mane model for the new starting century.
Because of my personal history I have always intended
to be socially aware when making art. I live in Mexico
City since I was 5 years old because of the military dic-
tatorship taking place in Argentina during those years.
All my life has been defined around that fact. I learnt,
in a very personal way, that the exile is a defeat, and
that the society in which we live is full of contradic-
tions. I had things to say but I needed a different lan-
guage than the one that my parents had used. I tried
26
to get involved in different political and social move-
ments, but in the end I decided to use my work as a
way to “do something”.
Dressing is a common characteristic of human beings
which unify or unite us and also achieves to establish
diversity. I use humor in my practice because I don’t
want my work to be pamphleteer. It is important for
me to link the garments with their social and physical
context, as I use my work for making comments of sit-
uations related to individual needs as well as social
matters. I find the relation between garments and the
idea of the public really interesting, as we get dressed
for the others, for going outside, for giving informa-
tion about ourselves. When I show my pieces in specif-
ic places such as parks, streets, shopping centers, I re-
establish a relation between clothes and public spaces,
and this becomes a way of undressing and exposing
the relation that I have established –or not- with cer-
tain social codes, generating a dialogue between art
and society that is also a kind of metaphor about the
way in which I experience the place and its people. I
also feel that in public spaces, my pieces, become more
honest, as it is dealing with “real life” situations.
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Al exis Ja h i e l
France

57 of 191, 192 or 193 depending

on who is counting (now 196)
This rug is a map of the 57 countries currently This piece, as with all the artist’s work, is meant to
engaged in an official armed conflict. Though this engage the viewer, requiring us to think beyond, yet
piece was worked on from 2006-7, no countries have always including ourselves.
ceased their fighting. This rug is a reflection of world
events, and as such cannot be brought to a finished
state. Countries can be added and removed as events
dictate. The main changes that are reflected in this
piece are the 3 new countries that have formed since
2006, though none of these three are recognized, or
counted, unanimously by the world’s other existing
countries,hence a change in the title of the piece.
The catalyst for this piece was the invasion of Lebanon
by Isreal that took place in the summer of 2006,the
media coverage of it and the general acceptance by
most people of being a passive and distant spectator to
something entirely wrong.
The form of a rug and the materials were chosen for
their seductiveness, in juxtaposition with the content.
All the yarn was bought used so as not to enter into a
cycle of consummation in the production of this work,
as the vast majority of conflicts are fought for control
of resources. The size was chosen as it is 4 times the
size of a standard fold out world map, taking the map
image from manageable to monumental, to under-
score the subject matter.

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Ros ie Ja me s
U.K.

W aiting for Monet

My work involves using the sewing machine as a draw-
ing tool. As I stitch I leave threads loose to create a
scribbly style of drawing. I also use hand stitched ele-
ments to piece together the images and to create a grid
surrounding the figures.
I am very interested in drawing and mark making and
in particular the kinds of marks which can be made
using these materials which are more usually associat-
ed with functional activities.
I draw figures from a crowd individually and position
them together as a group as they would have stood in
the space.
In most of my work I do not include any evidence of
the space in which these people are standing. The only
clue you have as to what these people are doing is in
the title.
In this case the title “Waiting for Monet” reveals that
these people are in fact waiting in a queue to get into
the Orangerie in Paris to see the large scale Monet
paintings.
I am particularly interested in looking at audiences for
art particularly the world’s most famous art
gallery/museums. Huge crowds of people gather
around one painting, Who are they? I try to unpick
the crowd and weed out the individuals. I want to
look at the differences between individuals in the
crowd and look for clues which may tell us what they
are doing.
I use stitch as the medium with which to explore these
images because it has a connection to craft and the
hand made. It gives the work a texture and movement
which is very different to anything you can get with a
pencil. The marks created by the black thread have a
soft slightly fluffy texture which can only be created by
thread on cloth.
The use of stitch can ask questions about the notion
of “work”. We assume that this is a very labour inten-
sive process and perhaps put more work into looking
at the piece.
Stitch and sewing has perhaps quite lowly connec-
tions, with the domestic and the female and is not
normally associated with ideas of high art, it is there-
fore a medium whose time has come and is the perfect
one to use when looking at how people consume art.

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So f ia Kap ni s s i
Greece- the Netherlands

My 26th home
This piece makes part of a lifelong process of wander-
ing through rooms of houses where I have lived, visit-
ed, dreamt, seen, imagined. The textile work is the
only warm element of the construction, white embroi-
dery on black, indicating a traditional image of a fami-
ly: the family as a drape that cannot really protect yet
stays around as an illusory covering shell; often that is
all we need.

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Seiko K i n o s h i ta
Japan-U.K.

F olding Pillar
I am a Japanese textile artist who uses traditional ’Folding Pillar’ is made by paper yarn which inspired
weaving and dyeing techniques to create wall-based by Constantin Brancusi’s famous columns. It can be
work, hanging, sculpture and installation for exhibi- folded into 15cm cube and stretches up to 300cm
tion and commission, also take part in many educa- high, also can alter the shape at will. This versatile
tional and community art projects as a leading artist. I work can transfer the space more interesting and
have been exploring the question of how traditional dynamic without impacting the physical space.
dyeing and weaving fit within the contemporary art
arena and how I can to push the boundaries of textiles
being perceived primarily as craft.
I am based at Yorkshire Artspace Society, Sheffield
amongst many British artists. This environment has
made me realise how my aesthetic sense is heavily
influenced by my land of origin.
In comparison to Western culture, simplicity is the
keyword in my country. In my opinion, the aim of
simple design is to create harmony between an envi-
ronment and the things that exist within it. For exam-
ple, the Japanese paper sliding door allows for daylight
as well as moonlight to permeate the space, for the
chirping of insects and whistling of the wind to enter
the space and to feel somebody’s existence in adjacent
rooms. I am interested in creating this kind of the co-
existence relationship between my works and its sur-
rounding space and want to create new dimension
and different quality to the space. I hope it stimulate
people’s sense of space and give a new experience of art.

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Anya L i f ti g
U.S.A.

P erformance
My most recent performance work has involved using
my body as a loom to weave myself into environments.
I come from a background in photography and I was
interested in the similarities between knitting/weaving
and photography. It seemed to me that just as photog-
raphy captures a moment, so does a stitch. So I
became interested in recording time with my body and
yarn.

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Al lis o n Ly n n
U.K.

Tactile hanging basket

This piece of work is created using a wide range of tex-
tile techniques, including knitting, dyeing, stitching
and wrapping.
The organic form resembles nature but contains many
recognisable textile features which enforce the obvious
manmade element.
This piece highlights the need for textiles other than
function. It shows the viewer a connection between
textiles as a tactile comforting media as well as high-
lighting how naturally we use it everyday.
The work resembles a hanging basket, another way of
displaying nature, because of this, the piece is
designed to hang from the ceiling and move as viewers
walk around. There are some small ceramic pieces
attached which give a fragile chiming noise if the work
is moved by the wind or the viewers.

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Mira n d a M a he r
U.S.A.

B anned Book
I invited nine women to use to make a cover for a Justine (de Sade)
book that was at one time forbidden in the U.S. but Karen Crenshaw - Quilting
is now a respected member of our intellectual canon. The Origin of the Species (Darwin)
They were asked a craft associated with
Stephanie Corne - Batik
femininity or the comforts of home that personally
appealed to them. They were given the option of Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences (Galileo)

choosing a book to cover or letting me choose for
them (most asked me to choose). I then
permanently sewed an inexpensive paperback edition
of the book behind their creation.
Note that the nine objects reflects the number of
women that I knew and invited at the time, not the
number of books on the list of banned books that
have come to be respected. That list contains
Jennifer Bevill - Hand dyed fabric & silk thread
Ulysses (Joyce)
Caitlin Rothermel - Potholder Weaving
Discourse on Method (Descartes)
Sarah Stengle - Cross Stitch Embroidery
Critique of Pure Reason (Kant)
Dona Armand-Monroe - Crochet

hundreds of titles. Analects (Confucius)

To defy the historical anonymity of female makers, Miranda Maher - Macrame

each participant in this project is always identified The Prince (Machiavelli)
along with the author and title of her book. And to L.A. Graff - Knitting
avoid a history of unpaid work, all the women
Four Dialogues (Socrates/Plato)
were given a signed multiple from me in trade for
JoLynn Maher - Needlepoint
their labor.
Information on the Nine women and the nine objects:

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Go rd a na M a j n a ric
Croatia

100 handkerchiefs – 100 thread drawings

For “Mama’s arts”, Gordana selected six samples from
her series of works “100 handkerchiefs – 100 thread
drawings” which should be considered as work in
progress. Each sample is unique and created by tying
threads on linen plates. It follows the shape of a hand-
kerchief with a dimension of about 32 by 37 cm.
“The use of understanding, feelings and her abilities,
allow the artist to dispense with realism, as generally
recognized. Using the banal themes and activities of
daily life allows a coalescence of ideas leading to philo-
sophical considerations on Being, the world, time and
space. Details take on more importance, as they
become carriers of themes, feelings and opinions. It’s
this detail that transforms “polished beauty” a little,
and by so doing, removes potential for assessment.
The complete opus of Gordana Majnarić – irrespective
of medium and technique – is stamped with a depth
of feeling, of striving, of continuance of MAN, of
strength in the natural order of things. Her creativity
is not an end – in – itself, rather, the thought pro-
voked the seriousness and beauty are what remains,
leaving behind MAN’s valuable, visual aphorism.”

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Mat t e rs o f A p p e a ra n c e
Germany

C hasing God
Diffusion Chamber 1
Diffusion Chamber 2
Diffusion Chamber 3
Matters of Appearance is an artist collaboration
founded by Nina DeBris and Pascal Unbehaun.
A MoA project usually starts with an extended prepa-
ration. This involves research and discussion of the art
theoretical or philosophical background, or even in-
situ work. In the second phase, the results are turned
into a visual presentation. Eventually, an artist's edi-
tion is published - this may be a book, a CD, a multi-
ple or something similar.
"Chasing God" deals with the philosophical idea of
constructivism. In how far is science objective? Or is
reality constructed in our minds? This is an active field
of research located at the interface between physics
and philosphy. The elementary particles in physics fol-
low the rules of quantum theory and cannot be
observed directly, but their traces in the diffusion
chamber look "real" to us. In fact, we do not see the
particles themselves but something completely differ-
ent.Embroidering these traces on cotton confronts
hard science with traditional, do-it-youself-craftsman-
ship, alienating the exactness of science which we
believe in.

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Eiren e M avo d on e s
U.S.A.-Belgium

A certain place

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Kat ie M c G o w n
U.K.

F outainwell & Riverford

Date: 2008 the city decided to just demolish them and start again.
Materials: Linen, thread, yarn, digital frame, power- In 2008, these towers are falling and I’m watching
point presentation them. I read about these blocks; sometimes there is
outrage at the destruction of communities and some-
In 1876, the girls sat in their classrooms and stitched
times there is relief that everything is just being erased.
pictures of a house. It was not their house, but one
This is a new city for me, and I have never known the
that their teacher had a pattern for, so it was the one
inhabitants of these places. They are not part of my
that they stitched. It was printed in black ink, so they
intimate life. Instead I’ve watched these towers; they
picked the colours most like their own sandstone
divide the city for me. Wilderness from city. Arrival
houses from the threads sitting in the classroom and
from departure. Before they all fall down, I’ve pre-
slowly completed the rows, layering up the bricks, slip-
served their patterns. Before they all fall down, I will
ping in windows and a door, tying the whole thing off
attach these cloths to a site nearby. They will collect
with a heavy, resistant roof. The pattern described a
the dust of the buildings as they explode, standing as a
border of strawberries and thistles, but the girls didn’t
witness to the monumental concrete that was there. A
have any red or violet thread, so everything was
physical trace of a site that will soon be written again.
stitched in green, unripe. Their work did not look like
anything they saw outside.
In 1965, new towers were quickly built in their city.
They were huge constructions that could hold entire
communities and high streets. These towers displayed
their populations for the whole city to see, vertical
landmarks boasting about their speed and girth. But
their rapid construction was mirrored in their fast
decline and soon they were concrete fables of despair
and disintegration. In 1982 the city decided to clad
them with bright new colours, but that didn’t stop the
desperate stories that the city told of them. Eventually

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Gab i M i tte re r
Austria

NST
Since two years, I`m working on series under the title
spaces in frames, which deals with the idea of a re-con-
version of digital aesthetics, visualized by “old” media
like painting and embroidery. The confrontation of
digital structures with traditional handcrafts is the
topic of the series NST.
Screen layouts of 3D computer graphics get build by
basic elements like polygons or triangles which form a
grid-structure also called wireframes.
I use black sewing cotton on white grounded canvas.
The thread builds a line, the line form a triangle, and
the triangle a net, finally the net became a model
which visualizes nothing concrete - a contrary to the
concrete models rendered by computers.. It`s an intu-
itive process which generates organic shapes or forma-
tions with a technical aspect.

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Ka li Ni ko l o u
Greece-the Netherlands
T he dowry
Video :2008
Title: The dowry.
Duration: 6’53’’
Colored, with sound
Language: Greek / Subtitles: English.
This is a video I made two months ago when I went in
Greece to visit my family. In this 6 almost minutes my
mother presents a very small part of the whole embroi-
dered collection she has made and she keeps them in
order to be in my future house, the house that she has
already made for me too. All these are really lovely
pieces but for me they become the threads that I have
to catch and follow them to go back to my home
country and live next to my family, as they want me
to.
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Hello, I’m Kali’s mother, I will show you some things
I have embroidered and knitted and I hold on to
these to give them to Kalitsa to decorate her house
with.
Well, I believe it is something traditional you will like.
Look now, one piece by one, which I will show you
with pleasure.
Look at this, it is a lovely centre-piece which she can
put on her table. It is an old design. I knitted it many
years ago and I have kept it. When it’s time will come,
we will open it, we will wash it, we will iron it and we
will prepare it for the moment when we will take care
of giving Kalitsa away in marriage.
Do you like this? I think it is very nice.
This is a piece which her grandmother has knitted
who was also named Kali. She made it in order to
remember her.
This too. These are old pieces.
This is again a very nice centre-piece for her table.
This too, which her grandmother had made as a set,
so they could decorate different furnitures in the
house, and they could match.
This is a very nice one. It is the “city’s key” as we call
it here in Greece. We make this pattern a lot and we
call it the “city’s key”. I embroidered this when I was
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 sixteen year’s old. I took this pattern from Sparta,
close to Mistra, where I saw it and because I liked it
very much I embroidered it and kept it for Kali.
This is also very beautiful, with the “pine cones” as we
say here. I was small when I embroidered this.
This too. I embroidered all these when I was sixteen
year’s old. I liked embroidery a lot. Our parents had
taught us, their dream was to become good girls and
house wifes. So, I also want my Kali to become a good
girl, although she is good already, to be a good girl,
house wife, to come here close to us, we would love to
see her close to us, in our house with a proper man, a
good one, to give her away in marriage, to take her to
church, to look at her admiringly as a bride and even-
tually to create a family. We, here in Greece, have this
expectation to see our children creating a family. A
proper family with the Greek customs we have. And,
whatever comes after that.
Ok, nothing more.
Thank you very much.

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Vi c t o r i ne Pa s ma n
the Netherlands

W hite Stranger
Four years ago I graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld
Academy in Amsterdam, where I discovered my pas-
sion for costume desgin and performance. How a cer-
tain character originates from a costume, the fysical
experience, limitations in movement or certain move-
ments that are required wearing the costume I found
very interesting.
Since then I have been designing costumes and I have
been doing performances. Fabulous figures / appear-
ances show a world of imagination. In this world the
characters play their game of seduction according to
their own rules of behaviour.
Early designs are characterized by the use of unusual
material and a labour-intensive proces, like White
Stranger, made of cotton and iron wire (pijperagers
this material is called in dutch).The suit is a 3-d trans-
lation of a series of pen drawings I made of hairy
beings. I worked on it for months, there’s almost
10.000 pijperagers used in the outfit. I feel connected
with this ‘animal’, because I created it and during the
making of I could think things over and dream away.
It was very meditative.
Interaction with the audience often creates an awk-
ward situation and can be unsettling: the spectator is
confronted with social conventions. What I find most
important is to be able to make people believe in my illusion.

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Da lib o rka Pe s i c
Serbia

S elf-portrait,insight and realization

is based on questioning of self- identity and research touches of hand and material. The strands of thread
of possibility of using the traditional technique means the softness of material which has a symbolic
(embroidery) in contemporary (postmodern) art. By meaning of “half state “ between the firmness of a
interweaving my image with famous icon images from crystal and non-material fluidness of flow/radiance of
the world of art, music and film (Merlyn Monroe, energy. By causing the sense of softness, warmth,
Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kalo, Nick Cave), I visualizes frailty and transformation, the strands of thread which
( the inner) states of my body which is settled by differ- are interlacing by the embroidery technique, are invit-
ent identities. Changeability and mobility of ing to a tactile perception which can become the foun-
body/identity is performed by embroidery on the sur- dation for one different (feminine) way of speaking
face of white canvas (towel) which once was used as and writing.
decoration for mirror or wall. Questions about the In that way (a feminine) embroidery of changeable
identity and possibilities of performing the embroi- becomings, can bring in a “new” view and “different”
dery in time when art is more and more connected to thinking in the art, which is today more and more
new technologies find the answer by recalling philo- based on achievements of digital media and computer
sophical postulates of Spinoza and Monteigne and technologies.
postmodern/feminist postulate of Deles and Liz
Irigarai.
In his philosophical postulates Spinoza pointed out
that our body feels and is enormously sensitive to
other bodies. Through the body are passing images of
the most different bodies which have ever touched it,
changing, composing and decomposing it.
The embroidery has a symbolic meaning of meditative-
ly, because asks for patience in work which is being
performed in time and also a sensualism considering
that is being performed through movements and

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Su s a S ch i n tl e r- Zu e rn e r
Austria
H istories of dresses
My first interest in historical textiles emerged, when I
bought a wedding dress in a Viennese second hand
store which turned out to be made by the “Atelier
Worth” in 1920.
In an extensive research work I decided to retrace the
history of this dress. In the analysis, questions about
the production process came up, the historical context
of costumes, the conservatory measures, gender
aspects as well as the reception of historical docu-
ments. My approach in this project also expressed in
an artistic way. A series of historically cut dresses were
produced where I tried to illustrate fashion as an
expression of the social changes within a short time.
Clothing can be seen as a reflection of social values
and norms. Is clothing not rather the area were these
values and norms can be negotiable?
[Note: isn’t consumption an active contribution to the
production of significant meanings?]
In what way do changing ideals of female/male behav-
iour influence the style of clothing? And in what way
does clothing influence the production of identities?
[Note: in what form do images of gender construct
identities? How is the body-image situated between the
poles of self-image and the image construed by anoth-
er person?]
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Can the daily choice of clothing be seen as performing
action? How far can a person be aware of the construc-
tion of his identity?
[Note: how does the production process relate to its
social effects?]
How does the reception of textile documents work?
[Note: In what way is the personal attitude of the per-
son working up history reflected in his work?]
Description
Research at the Fashion Institute of Technology NY,
Irene Lewisohn Costume Library NY (MET), Bard
Graduate Centre for Studies in the Decorative Arts,
Design and Culture NY, Museum of Applied Arts
Vienna.
Analysis of historical patterns, especially clothing at
the beginning of the 20th century, production of a
series of historically cut dresses.
The experiment was started to illustrate the social
changes on a garment. A pattern of an upper part
(from 1905) was applied on a dress (original cut from
1925) with the help of silk-screen processes.
A series of questions concerning fashion, history and
gender were asked. On one hand past reality can only
be reconstructed through questions, on the other
hand only occupation with history can make processes
and structures of social changes evident.
Production of pictures using silk- e-samp
screen processes, partly stitched.
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Ve ro n ika Sch u b er t
Austria

T ele-Dialog
The shape of a text and its textile texture is a theme
that Veronika Schubert picks up on, initially, quite lit-
erally: creating the images on a knitting machine that
will later be featured in the animation film, Tele-
Dialog, which combines an interest in language phe-
nomena and communications with textile techniques.
(Susanne Neuburger)

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Ti lle ke Sch wa r z
the Netherlands

D eer
My work can be understood as a kind of visual poetry. ings are based on images from the newspaper and also
It contains a mixture of contemporary influences, graf- I used traditional designs. I love the fine Japanese
fiti, icons, texts and images from traditional samplers. metal thread, in this work I have used a greenish
My work contains narrative elements. But you won’t color.
find complete stories, with a beginning, a storyline,
and an end. On the contrary, the narrative structures
are used as a form of communication with the viewer.
The viewer is invited to decipher connections or to
create them. The viewer may assemble the stories and
to produce chronological and causal structures.
Actually the viewer might step into the role of the
"author". It can become a kind of play between the
viewer and me. The general theme is ‘our modern
society and our strange way of communicating’. My
work reflects our strange society with the strong focus
on security and mass communication. My sense of
humor is typical for my Jewish background, a combi-
nation and a laugh and a tear.
The title ‘Deer’ refers to deer (because of the many
deer and antlers in this work) as well as the expression
‘dear’.
The texts are found everywhere, most often on inter-
net. Especially bloggers do interest and inspire me.
Bloggers often keep a personal diary in their ‘weblogs’
and communicate with anyone who comes a long ( a
strange mixture of private and public). A few draw-

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K_ Va n
the Netherlands

A bear that lifts you to tomorrow

On rare moments of absolute clarity, you may perceive
a glimpse of a window that leads to tomorrow. It has
happened to me only once as I was dropping off to
sleep. My body was in a deep state of rest and I was
unable to move a single muscle. The body and mind
retracted to yolk and white. With my eyes I could look
around into the inside of my mind. I drifted towards a
window. A window that would lead me to tomorrow.
Looking again at my surrounding I realized that all the
stress to the day had passed. I had ended the day.
There was nothing to be added. The next day seemed
bright and endless through the window.
A bear would come and take me across.
In this piece I have used red wool with a blanket stitch
to piece strips of canvas together. I wanted the shape
of each piece of canvas to be restrained in size, but to
be free in the angle. It is true that the repetition of
pressing the needle through the canvas, wrapping the
tread, and pulling the wool in place that this gives a
sence to rest.

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Oliv ia Va l e n ti ne
U.S.A.

On a Task
Cotton over Canvas, 2006, 12” x 12” x 1 1/2”
This piece is based on a found text from a mental
health diagnostic exam. The text is stitched onto a
substrate that was also made out of thousands of indi-
vidual crocheted stitches. The text reads: “When I
cannot keep my mind on a task, I worry that I might
be going crazy.”

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Pet er Ya r wo o d
U.K.

T he true believer
Part of a developing body of work exploring silent creative process intended to placate or sooth, as
emotional messaging opposed to stir or agitate emotions and personal
involvement.
Taking as the initial stimulus the body artwork/mark-
ings, that on one level are purely decorative, adorn-
ments, but on another level are hinting at an under-
current of thought and projection of the wearer,
which seem to contrast, if not wholly contradict, the
general perception assumed by the general public.
I love the tactile connection, the sense of hand pursu-
ing art, and the art pursuing the hand.
Hand sewn, I have learnt along the way the basics of
embroidery adapting it to my practice, treating it as
any other sculptural material, with wanting to follow
its natural, instinctive thread and at the same time
aim to bend kick and twist out of it, darker paths, the
challenge of unknown resolution, work without a pre-
determined validation.
I am interested in the making of marks, permanent,
temporary, purposeful, accidental, in relation to the
individual.
In a number of instances, my work has revolved
around domestic considerations, the personal and
physical habitat, working periodically with so-called
“common crafts” and domestic skills, the everyday, all
seen as part of a natural “numbed self-expression, a

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Ut e Za u n b a ue r
Austria

Y ou do love me, don’t you?

The pieces “K 56 F 3 AB”, “K 2 AM 3” and “K47 F 37 The dolls of this series distinguish themselves further
B” are part of the series by their color, as they are all white like little ghosts.
Perhaps a sort of „Ghost of Christmas to Come“ –
„You do love me, don‘t you ?“.
they paint a picture of a future where human beings
It was inspired by a newspaper article I encountered will once again be forced to demand love not readily
about the cloning of cats. given due to their physical appearance.
A U.S. company offered to reproduce one’s beloved
deceased pet.
Unfortunately the cloning process is not as refined yet,
so for every product that turned out 100% like the
original, there came about 50 that have to deal with
deformations of various kinds. Also, the article stated,
the company can not be held accountable for the char-
acter of the cloned cat.
This article prompted a number of questions. If scien-
tist are already able to clone a higher being like a cat,
how long will it be until they can clone a human
being ? And if human life becomes a similarly salable
product, what will happen with the failures ? Will
mankind be able to develop a love for artificially repro-
duced humans, especially those who are not perfect
but deformed?
I deliberately chose the form of a doll for this work as
opposed to imitating a human body because tradition-
ally dolls have a perfect physical appearance.

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