An excerpt from Bree Mattina’s writing about the exhibition ENTWINE, at Ipswich Community Gallery in 2023
Textile Art: Where the Historical and Contemporary Entwine
by Bree Di Mattina
Before fiberoptic cables, nano-technology textiles, or even the simplest of fabrics, there was twine. String, cordage, thread, twine; regardless of the term, humans have been making and using twine for hundreds of years.
As a noun, twine is twisted string made from multiple, smaller strands. As a verb, twine implies the wrapping of one item around a passive other. Entwine is a mutual action of two things wrapping around one another.
Each of the artists in ENTWINE are channelling ancient history of twine and their own tangled associations with textiles, reimagining them in the contemporary, in an act of mutual manipulation. In return, the works in this exhibition challenge our understanding of textiles. From early associations with women’s artistic practices and feminist art, textile art now bridges gender boundaries and encompasses a plethora of subjects and materials, some unconventional.
The tension between public and private is probed by Deborah Eddy, Morgan Bundy Wright, Jeanette Stok and Claudia Mazzotta. A house dress, a frock fit only to be worn at home while cooking or cleaning, is made by Deborah Eddy from cleaning cloths and builder’s twine. A symbol of both strength and confinement, H is for Housedress (2021), explores gendered roles and divisions of labour with the home, divisions which continue to spill into public roles.
In December 2019 through to mid January 2020 I was artist in residence at House Conspiracy in the inner Brisbane suburb of West End. Two other artists, Ruby Barnsley and Rebecca Piper joined the final exhibition titled The Personal is Political.
Outer Space Judith Wright Arts Centre window
Deborah Eddy W is for Women’s Work
Please follow this link to Deborah Eddy talking about her photographic artwork featured in the Judith Wright Arts Centre window in January to April 2022.
https://www.outerspacebrisbane.org/in-addition/deborah-eddy-artist-talk
The Personal is Political
Words by Dr. Federica Caso and
Chloe Marston
Dr Caso wrote:
What do women think? Where do their brains wonder when they are given the time to be with themselves? What do their bodies feel when they can be present before the world? Women activists, artists, and thinkers insist that women’s personal experiences are framed by societal forces and norms, and that if we want to understand and change the world we need to grapple with these experiences.
The Personal Is Political is an exhibition that explores these questions, and the answers are intriguing to say the least! Women reflect on their experiences, and their connection to people, places, and the world. They worry about the state of the world and think about the sources of societal violence. They hope for a better future and act to create change.
Resident artist Deborah Eddy projects us into a domestic dystopia that shed light onto family violence. Feature artist Rebecca Piper looks into female sexuality, how it is perceived by women and society. Feature artist Ruby Barnsley speaks about connections, relationships, and vulnerability at the intersection of the personal and the political.
Please follow this link to read Chloe Marston’s excellent piece on the exhibition.
In July 2019 I had a solo exhibition at POP Gallery in Fortitude Valley. The exhibition was titled Domestica. Carrie McCarthy wrote this very succinct and entertaining piece on my exhibition.
My second favourite household chore is ironing. My first is hitting my head on the top bunk bed until I faint.
Erma Bombeck
Wash, iron, cook, clean.
Work.
Work.
Work.
Repeat.
The words glow neon across a bedspread made of Chux wipes, an ode to exhausted women everywhere. On one hand, it’s a comical nod to the tedium of housework. On the other, a biting comment on the expectation that women be satisfied with a life of cleaning, working and sleeping, and the physical and emotional fatigue it brings.
The quilt is a recurring motif in Deborah Eddy’s practice, a tactile embodiment of her social politics seen through the lens of motherhood, grand-motherhood, ageing and equality. Previous versions were woven from building materials and safety equipment – impractical, uncomfortable, and antagonistic. Here, Eddy recasts her shroud as something less abrasive and more cosy, exploiting embroidery’s unthreatening status to convey her message.
In Domestica, Eddy presents a version of home life that is part Suzy Homemaker, part Stepford Wives. Lace curtains made of bright yellow safety netting frame the windows. Woven buckets and bowls sit alongside woven tea sets, lop-sided and full of holes. Together it suggests a sort of feminist Mad Hatters party has just taken place. Eddy calls these works of craftivism her ‘meaningful mischiefs’ – political and social critiques that help her maintain a sense of humour and modicum of sanity in the face of ridiculous patriarchy. By employing techniques traditionally viewed as feminine and low brow, Eddy is continuing the long history of women using craftwork to negotiate political and social spaces.
For centuries, women have used needlecraft and domestic skills to connect surreptitiously and subvert traditional power structures. In Eddy’s case, invisibility has bred rebellion. As an ageing woman increasingly ignored by society, she dares to push the boundaries of what’s acceptable for ‘mature’ women. Early works incorporated life-size figures in fluro workwear, with sagging breasts and pubic hair made of cable ties. Accompanying video works showed Eddy dressed in high vis protective clothing, dusting a local foundry’s machinery as the all-male workforce continued manufacturing nearby. In another, Eddy dressed in a housewife’s apron – complete with saucepan lids for breasts – as she hung out washing that slowly revealed IF I HAD A DICK I WOULD NOT HAVE TO DO THIS. Given titles such as “Can you see me now?”, the works were a blatant challenge to those who encountered them.
Today Eddy presents a far more poignant view of ageing in her performances, ironing the skin on her stomach and highlighting her facial wrinkles with a surgeon’s pen. In Staying Alive Eddy moves the action to a nursing home where her protagonist, now at the end of a long life of drudgery, is supported by a walking frame and resigned to her fate. There is however a glimpse of the old defiance – resistance may have been futile, but at least she’s going out dancing.
These performance pieces, filmed humbly and without editing or effects, reflect the Absurdist mentality that underpins all Eddy’s work. For every laugh, there is a tragic twist – feelings of frustration that arise out of the contradiction between the quest for a meaningful life, and its inaccessibility to so many people in society. The laugh in Eddy’s work is in understanding the relationship between social status and symbolism – we laugh because we share the same repression.
But so too does Eddy’s art practice show the absurdity of those who would dismiss feminine crafts as lightweight or non-political. The assumed naïveté of women’s work, and by extension the naïveté and quietude of women, is coupled with powerful messages against that same suppression. By embracing the very activities that seek to silence her, Eddy has co-opted her own oppression.
Carrie McCarthy
www.culturalflanerie.com
culturalflanerie@gmail.com
Deborah Eddy Art 