[100 Challenge] Roberta Gattel_66

Feminist Art, Activism and Artivism, Katy Deepwell, 2020

Leafing through Deepwell's book, I came across an article by Paula Chambers on Pussy Riot. The article recounted the episode of their arrest, which took place in Russia in 2015, and described the history of their balaclavas. What I found interesting is not so much the culture of dissent underlying the article but the essential symbolic apparatus covered by the material objects mentioned.

Pussy Riot wore handmade neon-colored woolen balaclavas; behind this choice of outfit, there was the intention not to scare people, avoiding being mistaken for terrorists, but it was also aimed at creating characters that expressed an idea.

Their balaclava embodied their feminist agency: they were, at the same time, a symbol of resistance against power and the icon of a millennium of female work carried out in the shadows, between needle and thread.

Browsing the net and the shops, I have noticed how, in recent years, sewing projects have become increasingly used as slogans and political posters and how sewing itself has become a powerful medium. 

An example of this is the “Tiny Pricks Project”: a collection of embroideries from all over the world, curated by Diana Weymar, which tells of the “tumultuous” – in her own words – political events we are experiencing. Her collection tries to counterbalance social media posts' impermanence by using textiles that embody permanence, civilization, and a shared history.

I find it curious, fascinating, and – above all – liberating that weaving is taken up and reinvented, especially after it has been completely ignored as art for centuries, not because it was worthless as such but because it was useless as being made by women.

I thought about Maria Lai's artistic activity and one of her works that has permanently moved me: “The sewn books.” Although Maria Lai never declared herself a feminist, her whole work is the result of a profound reflection on women's identity and the symbolic value of threading and weaving as tools for relationships and constructing meanings. She combines her love for poetry and language, embroidering the verses of her poems on the fabric pages of books.

To tell her story, Maria Lai uses only women's weapons, needles, and threads, like a pen and men's weapons. This is the testimony of an internal landscape that sees the creative act as a way of relating with the people around her. She ties these people to her story with the same thread she uses to write it. This transforms the action of sewing into an artistic gesture, removing it from the universe of the useful and delivering it to that of contemplation.