Midterm paper: a work that inspires you

I don’t remember how I first came across this piece of work. I might interested in textile art, but this medium in particular is unfamiliar to me. Lace. I cannot deny that I was intrigued by the form, I didn’t think this was supposed to represent something. After reading the artist’s description of the project, I realised that it shared the same theme as my favourite painting. I particularly liked this Reinterpretation because it looked nothing like the ones I had been studying. Before seeing this piece, I didn’t associate textile art with an actual way of communicating, as actual “Art” (whatever art means ). I always thought of this medium as a way of doing clothes or a strait-forward image created using fabric, yarn and thread. This opened my horizons to consider textile art as an art not a “craft”. Now I realise I was looking down on one medium, I was adhering to the idea that a craft is not art, and that art is always several steps above “crafts” . This piece was a turning point for me. I had already been working with embroidery and crochet before this lace’s discovery. But I didn’t think I could convey such intricate narratives through this medium. i also think it was important to me to find this specific theme in textile work. I had been collecting different stories (displayed on media or in the art world) about women using violence to gain the power they were denied of. Judith beheading Holofernes has always been on the top of my collection top stories. I have studied different reinterpretations, comparing the painting done by Caravaggio and the one made by Gentileschi helped me see the way different artist react to the same theme. Translating this reinterpretation to a completely different medium also was a huge surprise to me. The fact that this art is something wearable and the way the shape interacts with the central theme was what I needed to find muy passion. I tried to make my textile projects into something completely functional before this, now I have been working in different way of communicate complex ideas through textiles. I always come back to this piece for inspiration. The lace helped me discover different ways of art making. It also remind me to look closely, to take my time. Every time i revisit this artwork, I realise something new. For example, I think it is a way use of medium to reate a necklace (a piece of jewellery that goes to the neck) to a theme involving the beheading of a man. The lace also introduced me to more historically details of the theme. I always thought this was a topic exclusively to painting. Seeing that Judith beheading Holofernes is a rather common topic among the lace making work explored my bubble. I could make textile art that is complex, that mixes stories, that represents something important to me; I didn’t have to stick to a more practical way of textiles. This lacework is the beginning of my freedom as a textile artist, it is what I needed to find the medium I am the most confortable with.

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