“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, 2024)
Image from the Women’s Work exhibition.
Throughout my life I have been drawn to craft as a form of artist expression. Sewing, embroidery, knitting, and weaving have always spoken to me and given me an extremely tactile form of self-expression. With that being said, I have always felt an internal conflict with my love of these very traditional forms of media.
What does it mean to be a woman who loves to sew in the era of modern feminism, and is craft an empowering or regressive form of protest?
I’ve struggled with this question just as long as I’ve participated in these hobbies, but walking through the Women’s Work exhibition gave me the answer I’ve been looking for. Craft, whether used as a literal means of protest or not, is an incredibly empowering tool. It provides an outlet for self expression that is therapeutic, expressive, and uses a variety of supplies. When I was surrounded by Berrie and McClay’s work the scale, detail, and investment of time and energy was incredibly inspiring. These pieces were the physical embodiment of the lasting struggles that women endure despite drastic shifts in the state of female equality in the United States. Reclamation of these traditional “female” mediums is part of this struggle, not antithetical to it.
References
Women’s Work. (2024). OSU.edu. https://uas.osu.edu/events/womens-work
