Hand stitch invites the viewer to touch as much as look and touching helps with thinking because it breaches the gap between the body and the mind. It links emotion with thoughts. As I stitched, a powerful self-portrait appeared on the reverse side; an inside out, sensual, raw-edged messiness that contradicts the competent dress I had drawn on the front.
This piece challenges thinking, even as it shouts it, and lays out the process of making as most important.
Yes, the work came from my mind and hand but it also came from my inner self and is a portrait of my own dualism. Part of me thinks too much, the other just does it.The best thing? IT's DONE!
2 comments:
i'm beginning to think we need to invent a hanging system for these so we can show that duality!
i find it so amazing and magical that the back can be not literally but figuratively (emotionally?) the mirror image of what was portrayed on the front--but i bet if it was done deliberately, it would not be as effective
I have had some success with convincing galleries to hang my work out from the wall so that backs can be peeked at.
And about the back of this dress piece - it just happened by itself. I like it being so raw -but I love the beauty of a finely hand stitched quilt back more
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