CENTURIES OF WOMEN AND THREAD
2024
29”H x 40 ½”W
Vintage handmade doilies and embroidery (The House by the Side of the Road, verso), Japanese zokin (dust cloths), contemporary printed cotton, vintage thread.
The back, or verso, of a piece of worked cloth is often as interesting to me as the front. The bottom center piece here is a reflection of the complex work behind a simple embroidery, in this case one of countless embroideries made to illustrate Sam Walter Foss’s 1897 poem with the refrain, “Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.” The chaotic, energetic stitches seen here on the back of the piece feel like they describe the upheaval of the time caused by the industrial revolution, which inspired the poem and the peaceful scene embroidered by women across America at the turn of the 20th century.
On exhibition at Yester House, Southern Vermont Art Center, Manchester, Vermont, through July 14, 2024.
$700