Women’s Work will exhibit Alex McClay’s weavings and beaded work in conjunction with Stephanie Berrie’s sewing and sculptural printmaking work, reclaiming the derogatory term “women’s work” in relation to the visual arts. Both McClay and Berrie explore themes of womanhood, feminism, and reclaiming power in vulnerability; McClay uses text as a powerful tool of protest in her weavings and beaded tapestries, expressing her strength as a survivor, while Berrie uses printmaking and sewing to recreate plants, animals, and bodies to explore her relationship as a human with her surrounding world.
These works together call the viewer to rethink what “women’s work” could be and to show the power, strength, detail, and time that is put into these art forms that are traditionally categorized as “craft.”
–Women’s Work. Urban Arts Space. (n.d.). https://uas.osu.edu/events/womens-work
I visited this exhibition at the Urban Arts Space, expecting to use it for the arts section of my paper and perhaps to inform my project focus. Although the art displayed was beautiful and powerful, I was a bit disappointed because I went into it with a certain expectation in mind of how I thought the exhibition would be. With a title like “Women’s Work”, I expected a heavier emphasis on appropriating historical crafting methods deemed to be for women only, such as embroidery, garment making/sewing, weaving, dollmaking, cross-stitch, etc. and applying them to areas deemed only for men. I guess I went in with a design perspective and not an art perspective, expecting more functionality in the pieces or more all-encompassing feminist messaging, when instead the art was more about the artists’ personal experiences. There were still weavings, beaded pieces, and sewn stuffed sculptures which brought in the title’s theme, but I felt the title was a bit misleading and didn’t encapsulate the theme of the pieces. The focus seemed to be more on the artist’s experience as a survivor of sexual assault, so the title prepared me for one thing while the art spoke to an entirely different theme. Because the exhibition wasn’t what I expected, it’s difficult for me to relate it back to my capstone.
