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Tuesday, 18 March 2014

Hitchcock's sewing machine


Last week I was at the opening of the Threads exhibition at the Arnhem Museum of modern arts. Here you see me standing in front of an installation featuring an antique sewing machine and acrylic yarn. And yes, I'm wearing my Deer and Doe Plantain.

Life of thread, Chiharu Shiota

Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota creates her own spaces by stretching hundreds of threads through the room. The threads compose a labyrinth, which can be seen as a reflection of the choices one has to make at each intersection. For some, the installations are a threatening presence, but the stability of the structure can also be reassuring and provide protection. Central to the work of Shiota are the themes of memory, dreams and fears. In Life of thread the sewing machine in the middle seems to produce the treads and is simultaneously caught in it's own product.

Walking around it I could both see it as a very cosy sewing cocoon or as a scary scene from a Hitchcock movie. You know, the one where sewing machines take over the world and you get strangled by your own bobbin thread.


A sewn statue


Recycle by Faig Ahmed
This piece shows the sacrifices that have to be made when tradition is being reused or modernised. Ahmed cut a 150 year old carpet in pieces, arranging them in the global symbol of recycling.



 Hand embroidery on found photograph by Julie Cockburn





The exhibition can be seen till August 17, 2014 at Museum Arnhem, the Netherlands


                                     

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