The cross-stitch is fundamental to the history of the art of embroidery. The stitch itself has a clear structure, where every stitch forms a building block. It works perfectly in our world of pixels and any image can be translated into an embroidery – but what happens if we work around it from the other way? First the embroidered surface, then the design.
Katarina Evans’ embroidery ’No Title’, currently exhibited at Liljevalchs Vårsalongen, is a cross-stitch embroidery erased. Only the structure remains.
Another eight blank sheets have been embroidered by Katarina and eight masters of colour and design, from different artistic disciplines and generations, have been invited to react on it. Does the existing structure give new ideas to an embroidery technique we have preconceived ideas about? Is it possible to ignore the structure and regard the embroidery as any blank piece of paper?
The eight collaborators are textile designer Wanja Djanaieff, stylist and designer Synnöve Mork, architect Karolina Keyzer, designer Katarina Brieditis, textile designer and architect Ulrika Mårtensson, graphic designer Ida Wessel, illustrator Sara Teleman as well as designer and artist Katja Pettersson.
OCCUPATION?
Artisan/designer within the textile field and I hold a Master certificate in art embroidery.
WHAT DOES FIBER MEAN TO YOU?
Fibers are 24/7. From the bed I sleep in to the clothes I wear and what my hands work.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FIBER OR TEXTILE TECHNIQUE?
Wool is a fantastic fiber and my preferred tool is the needle but I find it hard to chose one stitch. I like using stitches that can be used in a free manner and I enjoy creating structures the most. I think cross-stitch is very beautiful but it is not my favourite technique to embroider.
WHAT IS YOUR MOST VIVID TEXTILE MEMORY?
I have two very different fiber memories, which both that have stayed vivid. The first on wool, on a felting course, learning by doing about it’s properties and where the memory is not only visual but also tactile and scented. The other on cotton on my first trip to India to learn about the textile industry. I visited a (quite manual) ginning mill and the first impression was how white and soft and beautiful it was. Then people appeared like ghosts in the white dust, sorting and cleaning, and the vision went from clean to dirty.
KATARINA BRIEDITIS "Plane" To all dimensions of the blank sheet. To see the structure and the shadows if the stitches. To the illusive lightness of the result of the work. To air under ones wings and to the journey towards a goal when we never really know where we land. To all the traves we have done together. To Thor who loves airplanes.
WANJA DJANAIEFF "/ / = X " It was provoking to put the needle into such a beautiful embroidered piece. Whatever I would do, I would destroy it! To sew in already existing stitches, created much intimacy, a strange experience. My embroidery thread slipped and slid! Patterns grew (a handicraft teacher of the old school would have fainted!). To dare put a scissors through the embroidery is tempting and would feel liberating!!!
KAROLINA KEYZER "Unfinished ///" Emma + Rakel, Köpmannebro, about 1935, half cross-stitches, wool, silk and a thread of old silver. To start with, a numbingly beautiful white sheet, light. Added, traces of memories from another time through a black and white photo, pencil, stitches sewn and un-sewn. In their world a cross-stitch embroidery commenced was naturally finished, first it it didn’t exist then it was completed – Done.
SYNNÖVE MORK "Zeros and Ones" The role as a designer is put to the test. A white paper – a blank sheet – all the possibilities. Is there anything more difficult. Particularly if the surface is beautifully embroidered and the cross-stitches have a personal character of irregularity. I knew exactly what to do with it - before - afterwards it became something else. To make the sheet mine I had to take power over it. Did it become what I wanted – no idea- it became something – a galaxy – a cyber sky/space- difficult, fun and wonderful.
ULRIKA MÅRTENSSON "Landscape" The white cross-stitch embroidery is breathtakingly beautiful. I carry the roll with the embroidery with me for weeks waiting for something, maybe courage. The embroidery imbues respect, but for me to be able to get working on it, a portion of disrespect in combination with care and curiosity is demanded. Days pass. What I am waiting for? I think of aunt Inez who was 80 when I was born. She was actually my father's aunt. She taught me to embroider and sew. We sat in her living room and embroidered. I do not remember us talking while embroidering. I just remember that there were many important stages of the work and that most important was to embroider so that the backside would be as beautiful as the front. Aunt Inez was renowned for embroidering backsides as beautiful as the front. She had a haberdashery shop and lived alone all her life. Who was she?
KATJA PETTERSSON "Master Mind" Refers to the body’s memory and muscular mind, also a future reflection of the of the now known craft of the cross-stitch. The virtual hand of the crusade Master cross stitching the fabric, a craft that is the gateway to embroidery. The hand and craft here described as something exhibited at galleries and museums, a craft that previously was educational, educative and a place of appeal.
SARA TELEMAN "What were you thinking?" I tried for the longest time to use my ordinary tools in the project; paper and pencil or ink. It didn’t work. Yarn had to conquer yarn. I stared and stared on the millions of cross-stitches and wondered: ” Katarina, what were you thinking? What were you thinking of when you sewed all these millions of stitches?” Then I started to embroider myself. And now I know.
IDA WESSEL "No Title" When I received the sheet I asked how long it took to embroider. The answer was ”around 40 hrs”. Multiply that with a decent hourly rate and feel the sum. To me the white sheet became, if possible, even more daunting. I decided to keep it intact and to work on strengthen it by putting it in a context. The stitches are monochrome, repetitive and forced into a predetermined system. They are controlled, anonymous units. Historically embroidery is something "female". To me the cross-stitch embroidery became a metaphor for a woman's place and lack of room to manoeuvre in an existing structure. To be forced into a system not primarily created with one's own interests in mind. To be locked in. I wanted to find a contrast to the "un-free" in order to give the sheet importance. The goal was to create a book that is ”quiet and controlled” on the outside and when opened is explosive, like a pressure cooker. I used feminist quotes and chose the positive ones – with an onward force. I started setting a font digitally for the quotes but found them surprisingly authoritarian in relation to the handmade embroidery – like taking a shortcut. I chose to write them all by hand. The format of the book was determined by the size of the cross-stitch embroidery and was finally bound by hand, by Södermalms Bokbinderi.
