Embroidery as a cultural technology - these 14 artists bring textile art to the next evolutionary level

Embroidery is the art to decorate fabric materials with a needle and embroidery thread. Modern embroidery that includes basic techniques such as needle tip, cross stitch and quilting have been on the rise . Everywhere there is a busy knitting, embroidering and sewn.

While manual work often known for their use in upcycling clothing by sewing, it also decorates interiors and shows its versatility as an art form. Embroidery enables artists to express themselves in a new way and have become a popular medium in the contemporary art world . More and more artists have been using the yarn since the 1990s. Embroidery as cultural technology experiences a real renaissance.

The self-maker movement ( do it yourself or diy community), which led to the foundation of hundreds of rope circles in the United States, has long since arrived in Germany. Portals like Etsy, which offer self -sewn in small, often personalized series, grow at a breathtaking pace.

In Berlin, the captain grazes the fabric market on the Maybach bank, in Hamburg you meet for crocheting, and in Bremen you also have a self-sewn boom-observing in the cultural bunker.

There are exciting conifers to discover that do not have much to do with cute owl pillows and flower patterns. The embroidery has conquered a permanent place in the art world and is no longer tired of smiling at as mere handicrafts. Even the renowned documenta now gives the textile work and its artistic representatives generously space. Since the 1990s, more and more exhibitions on sewn and embroidered nationwide - sometimes far from women's clichés of the last century.

A small historical digression on embroidery art

The old handicraft technology begins with the earliest preserved embroidery from the 5th to 3th centuries BC . Greek vase paintings show that the old Persians have made progress in the manufacture and weaving of quilted ceilings that were worn as armor during the Battle of Marathon and 490 BC. BC.

The origins of the embroidery can be traced back to the time of the disputes in China (500–300 BC) and within the European area to the Swedish migration period (300–700 AD).

" Queen Elizabeth I often embroidered with other female rulers, similar to male leadership figures playing golf today ," says Barbara Paris Gifford, curator at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York. "It was a favorite activity because it stimulated concentration, conversation and competition."

In the Ottoman Empire of the 17th century, embroidery offered symbolic protection for the most valuable things, including religious objects and newborns.

Whether for decorative or practical purposes, embroidering all over the world was embroidered, across all cultural and class. Women of the western upper class made decorative embroidery, while women of the working class focus on repairing, quilting and marking while practicing their style and handicraft speed.

After the First World War, manual work was used as a therapy for veterans in Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia that suffered a shock of grenades. The embroidery industry for disabled soldiers worked from 1918 to 1955 and encouraged disabled veterans to return to the labor market by producing textiles.

So although it is not a new discovery, the growing popularity of embroidery is particularly interesting because awareness of mental health has increased. As a practice of relaxation and separation, embroidery is very meditative and offers busy spirits serenity.

It has been shown that the concentration on such a creative yet technical task lowers the mirror of the stress hormone cortisol and creates healthy habits. The apparently simple process of sewing enables the individual to take time for themselves, which is particularly necessary in a world with shorter attention spans in a world.

In recent times, in the 1970s and 1980s women in Chile created glowing embroidery, so -called Arpilleras . The Arpilleras, which reminded of the "disappeared" family members of the regime, were so threatening for the government that it was declared a crime to have one.

In the 1970s, feminist artists such as Judy Chicago , Miriam Schapiro and Faith Ringgold embroidery and other handicrafts to tell powerful and disruptive stories. They researched handicraft techniques in order to research the construction of gender roles and to question the hierarchy, painted painting and sculpture about the forms of art and craft, which were traditionally regarded as women's work.

Development of embroidery

Some historical observers would argue that embroidery has not changed significantly over the centuries.

"It is a striking fact that there are no changes in materials or techniques in the development of embroidery ... that can be felt or interpreted as progress from a primitive, refined level. On the other hand, we often find a technical performance and a high level of manual work in early work, which were rarely achieved in later times"

(The Art of Embroidery, 1964)

We take a closer look at this thesis. Modern developments, interpretations and applications could draw a completely different image. Numerous needle-and-thread pioneers of the art scene (see below) also disagree.

The development of the sewing techniques and their decorative options have contributed to the rise of embroidery art in luxury fashion . Cutting, repairing and reinforcing fabrics are all processes that promote this development of the sewing techniques.

Some of the biggest names in luxury fashion, including Chanel and Alexander McQueen , use this method to refine their unique pieces with an artistic and extremely unique look. Basically, embroidery as a textile art form can now be found everywhere in the fashion world and beautify everything - from hats to coats and jeans to dresses with pearls, pearls, crystals and even feathers.

14 artists with radical new paths in embroidery art

Embroidery are increasingly present as textile art in museums and galleries, and artists use their needles to pursue a dizzying variety of creative projects with this cultural technology and, among other things, gender, sexual and ethnic identity, cultural history, memory and pop culture. In the following we present 14 groundbreaking artists who show the immense artistic potential of this handicraft technology.

James Merry - brand logos combine with Iceland's nature

One of these artists who works with well -known brand names is the artist James Merry , who pursues a very unique approach when creating his works.

Merry lives in Iceland and works by hand with a variety of media, inspired by Iceland's nature . He sees himself as a embroidery artist and procures vintage logo pieces such as Nike , Puma or Adidas and embroider these pieces by hand. The artist enhances the clothing with these highly complex details that are based on images from nature.

Merry embroidery makes it possible to preserve the comparable aspects of nature that would otherwise disintegrate over time.

Hillary Waters Fairle - complex relationship between people and nature

Hillary Waters Fairle is an artist who studies textile traditions and processes and created a number of works that combine an interest in nature and human touch .

Fairle used botanical materials such as leaves and produces work that inspire the viewer to spend more time with the view of often overlooked objects.

With different interventions on hand, the works of art are tender and yet ruthless and reflect our complicated relationship with nature.

Sophia Narrett - picturesque scenes full of emotion

Narrett creates dazzling, embroidered scenes of love, heartache and lively imagination . Their approach is expansion and picturesque, with meticulous color gradations. She has a talented hand for reproducing praise architecture, flowering gardens and the human body as the accumulation of fabric threads.

While Narrett's topic is personal and almost intimate, the extent of their scenes with their abundance feels like history painting. Narret commented on the reorientation of painting to embroidery as follows:

"When I tried it for the first time, I was completely enthusiastic and fascinated. It forced myself to slow down and think about every brand."

Her greatest influences are representatives of French figure painting in the 19th century and contemporary painters such as Lisa Yuskavage, Hernan Bas, Angela Dufresne and Allison Schulnik.

Richard Saja-toilet-de-jouy re-told

Saja uses embroidery to transform toile-de-jouy fabrics and patterns Its colorful stitches form a second layer over the toile and construct a new story, which is enriched cigarette

Saja's light-footed touch revives the tired prints of rococo figures that frolic on swings or laze on picnic.

Although he has been working in this way for over a decade, he initially learned to embroider out of necessity, not out of inspiration. Since then he has been won for various cooperation in the fashion industry.

Orly Cogan - female archetypes and a new generation of women

Orly Cogan's works examine common female archetypes and stereotypes, the Madonna/whore, the pin-up girl, the Lolita, the femme fatal. The artist sews her pictures on vintage lines with existing motifs of cross-stitch flowers or stirring deer. The result is palimpsest in which the struggles and fears of a new generation of women overlay the old superiors.

Cogan's characters often seem to be trapped in moments of private enjoyment - lying on the floor and cocaine sniffing or naked and surrounded by cakes. Your style is illustrative, with economical strokes and strong outline, similar to the pictures in a children's book. Sometimes it adds pale color stains to differentiate the room or suggest meat and blood.