Assignment 2 - Revised Artist's Statement

At the beginning of Painting 3, I had outlined my interest in both textiles and painting as a combined approach.  The impetus was originally the shirt industry in my home town and the thousands of women who worked within that industry for over 120 years and how it had shaped the history and culture of this city.

I've realised that during the course of this assignment though that it's the nature of fabric itself and the stories that are spoken through the metaphor of fabric and thread that are at the core of that 'thing' that makes me want to make art.  I'm interested in the domestic, the work that women did/do and what was created in that doing.  I should clarify that I'm not interested in the decorative or pretty.  How to resolve a number of issues?  Textiles as an expression of women - a secondary 'lesser' art form - painting as masculine - an art form, along with sculpture,  that had primacy over all others, at one stage.

The warp and weft of fabric sent me in the direction of grids and networks and then onto lace. I looked at many artists who have incorporated the grid in their work and noted some scholarly writing on this subject - particularly that of Rosalind Krauss.

I'm not a fan of lace per se and its cosy connotations of doilies and so forth.  I've looked at many artists who use lace as part of a conceptual language in a radical way and I'm curious about how it can work with painting - either physically in paint or the idea of using the spaces in between that lace creates. 

In reading 'The Subversive Stich' which I mention in this blog, I was interested in how 1970's feminists had first rejected and abhorred the practice of embroidery and how they had then taken embroidery and used it towards their own ends.  Judy Chicago's 'The Dinner Party' and Tracey Emin's 'Tent', comes to mind.

The investigations into materiality for this assignment have made me realise that there is a strong feminist element developing in this work - it may not be visualised yet but it is there.

I have asked myself the question 'Why am I on a painting degree when I'm so interested in textiles?'

If I'm honest, one reason is that painting is still regarded as a 'higher' art form over textiles. Another reason is that it is challenging to work at combining and therefore 'elevating' textiles (and by association, women) to the same level as painting.  It may be that I let go of some preconcieved notions that I must have some form of fabric/textile in each painting.  It may be that I have grasped at textiles because underlying all this is that maybe I am a closet feminist waiting to emerge!