Cross-Stitched Culture
7-9 Program: Cross-Stitched Culture
Final Project Description:
Each student will leave with one embroidered button.
Description:
In this workshop, students learn basic cross-stitch techniques and create an embroidered pin-back button based on their own design. In the Gallery, students explore the work of artist Emily Gove who uses embroidery to create portraits of female characters from zombie films. Through engaged discussion, we will explore ideas of feminism, history and popular culture and think about how artists can challenge established ideas through their work. Back in the studio, students will create a small (2.25”) drawing that explores something in popular culture they would like to challenge. They will learn the basics of cross-stitch and apply this technique to create an embroidered version of their drawing which will then be made into a pin-back button for them to wear or trade.
Curriculum Connections
Explore relationships between identity, place, culture, society and belonging through art; describe, interpret and respond to works of art; question established ideas and historical perspectives; compose, interpret and expand ideas using symbolism.
Creation & Analysis:
Finish your gallery tour at Emily Gove’s Girl Gang and have a discussion about her work.
· What is Gove depicting? Zombies
· Where have you seen zombies before? TV, movies
· Are most zombies male or female? What is the difference between female zombies and male zombies in movies? (Refer to reference at end)
Female zombies are there for what they look like; they are objectified, while male zombies are there to further the plot. Emily Gove found blogs online focused on discussing and idolizing the “sexy zombies of popular cinema” which is what inspired her to create these works.
· How is Gove changing how zombies are depicted in movies?
o She is empowering the characters through depicting them though a female viewpoint, which is communicated by the traditionally female technique of embroidery?
- Why is embroidery considered feminine?
- Is embroidery usually considered art?
- How does embroidery empower these women?
· Currently there is a new revolution and revaluation of needle work. Women working within modern feminism are reclaiming traditionally female activities as a source of pleasure instead of required unpaid labour.
“In general terms, what . . . feminists [throughout the 20th century] have in common . . . is a recognition that domestic activities have been devalued and are largely unrecognized. Where they might differ is that, while household work is figured in these radical feminist writings at best as a necessary evil and at worst a form of slavery, some [modern] feminists seek to reassess the potentially pleasurable aspects of domestic pursuits.”
- Elizabeth Groeneveld, “Join the Knitting Revolution,”
· So Emily Gove is looking at something that disturbs her in popular culture – the objectification of female zombies in horror films, they are there for what they look like. If we break down the word objectify what word can we find inside it?
o Object – so to objectify we are turning something into an object
· She used a traditionally feminine art form to re-humanize the female characters in these movies and give them some control over how they are viewed by people, as a “girl gang” rather than something to be looked at.
· Is using needle-work as a way to communicate frustration with something in our culture a new activity?
o No. Pick and choose information from these quotes.
“Craftwork, and knitting specifically, has indeed been used to convey political messages of many stripes. For example, during World War II, American women were encouraged to knit in order to support the troops. Contemporary groups, such as the Revolutionary Knitting Circle, by way of contrast, knit anti-war banners and arm bands. Other anti-war knitting initiatives include a pattern for ‘‘war count mittens,’’ memorializing the number of fallen US soldiers in stitch; knitters are encouraged to work on these mittens in public in order to spur conversations about their purpose, which is to ‘‘wear history sadly and thoughtfully’’ (Auerbach). Knitting for charity—for premature babies in hospital, for blankets for the homeless, or for church fundraisers—has a long history and is a form of activism.”
- Elizabeth Groeneveld, “Join the Knitting Revolution,” 266.
“[T]here was a resurgence of interest in crafts in the 1960s and 1970s [that] was clearly aligned with the anti-Vietnam War protesters . . . Women in the western world took up their needles and threads during this era. Spinning wheels were in full flight producing yarns for hand knits and looms threaded to produce textiles for wear and domestic use.”
- Elizabeth Groeneveld, “Join the Knitting Revolution,” 269.
“What these diverse examples from across the political spectrum suggest is that knitting itself is not necessarily inherently political but rather can be mobilized for a variety of different ends and that the politics of knitting are context-specific.”
- Elizabeth Groeneveld, “Join the Knitting Revolution,” 266.
· Gove is working within a tradition of taking a domestic activity, like needle work and transferring it to the public sphere, which asserts that it has value. By putting both embroidery and the female zombie characters into public she is saying that both these female zombies and traditional women’s craft have value as artistic subjects and technique.
· If you have time, ask them if any of the other works in this exhibition are making a similar statement about traditionally women’s art and popular culture (Sarah Gotowka). Return to her work and make a quick comparison of the two women’s practices. What are the song lyrics saying – empowering female messages or are they objectifying women as well.
· Settle the students into the studio. Have them think about something in popular culture that seems problematic or bugs them. Do a brain storm on the board together. How could you challenge it? Have the students create a small sketch of their idea.
· Once they have finished their sketch have the students create a cardboard frame for their embroidery. Explain the proper way to use an exacto knife and hand out knives and cutting mats.
· Staple fabric on to card. Start in corner and pull all edges tight. Staple in corners and on sides.
· Copy your design on to fabric with pencil and decide what colours you will use.
· Go and get colours that you need and needles. About 4 lengths of the embroidery thread is the maximum they should need.
· Stop Kids from starting. Teach them how to do a back stitch
a. Thread the needle and tie a knot in the end of the floss. If you only have the small needles separate out 2 strands from the floss.
b. Put the needle through a hole in the fabric where you want to begin. Pull tight.
c. Push the needle through the front of the fabric several holes down in the direction they want to go.
d. Pull the needle up through the fabric several holes down and return to the last place you have thread showing and push the needle down through the fabric.
e. Continue on as necessary.
f. Show them how to finish their colour by sewing under the stitches on the back.
· Get the students to choose one colour, thread their needle and tie a knot. Once they have completed that, they can start on the outline of their pattern. Otherwise it will take too long!
· When finished get them to trace the inside of the template with a pencil and remove the fabric from the template. Then cut out the fabric into a circle.
· Begin the button making as kids finish and clean up. See final page for instructions.
Duration:
120 minutes in the studio and gallery – Gallery: 30 min on tour, 15 min on discussion at Girl Gang, Studio: 15 minutes Intro & Sketch time, 15 min to make template and attach fabric, 30 min to teach back stitch & embroider, 15 min clean up and making buttons.
Materials:
Cardboard squares
3-5 frame templates
Exacto Knives
Cutting Mats
Precut Fabric
Embroidery floss
Needles
3-5 Staplers
Scissors
Button Maker
Shells
Mylar Shields
Pinned Backs
Girl Gang Instructor Reference
“Gove’s research led her to discover online fan groups dedicated to idolizing the sexy zombies of popular cinema. Fetishizing the incidental female characters, these groupies drool in the blogosphere. The female “sexy zombie” character is a staple in horror films. Relegated to the role of stripper or wild punk-rock groupie turned undead, the sexy zombie is designated to walk the earth partially or completely nude to titillate for all eternity. Iconic scream queen Linnea Quigley participated in the 2013 Toronto Zombie Walk festivities by throwing the severed head to kick off the parade. Best known for her role as the sexy, dancing punk zombie girl “Trash” in Return of the Living Dead, Quigley’s face is emblazoned on Gove’s fabric swatches. As homage to the characters, the feminine touch of stitchery removes the layer of pornographic residue imbued within the poor-resolution, digital stills online. The women are lovingly transformed into haunted feminist souls rather than vapid, sexualized creatures.”
Suzanne Carte, You Cannot Kill What is Already Dead, Exhibition Catalogue
Look & Discuss:
What are some ways that popular culture can be problematic? Is crafting art? What is art? What are some ways that women have made political statements in the past? What constitutes political protest?
Prep:
Prepare Fabric, Cardboard Squares and Frame Templates.
Set up Embroidery Floss on a table with scissors so it can be easily accessed and cut.
Have button making station set u-p with all necessary materials.
RESOURCES
Web
DMC-USA. Kids Crafts! - How to Teach Kids to Stitch Their Doodles. Youtube Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3J3sYeVeYk
Doris McCarthy Gallery. You Cannot Kill What Is Already Dead. Exhibition Catalogue. 2013.
https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~dmg/yckwiad/index.html
Emily Gove
Marquez, Jessica “DIY Oversized Cross Stitch Wall Art.” Design Sponge.
http://www.designsponge.com/2016/12/diy-oversized-cross-stitch-wall-art.html
Groeneveld, Elizabeth. ‘‘Join the Knitting Revolution’’: Third-Wave Feminist Magazines and the Politics of
Domesticity.” Canadian Review of American Studies/Revue canadienne d’e´tudes ame´ricaines. 40, no. 2, 2010. TRU Library.