The exhibition also incorporates a collaboration with local women and girls and the Domestic Dusters Project, a craftivist endeavor begun by UK-based artist and academic Vanessa Marr. 

This collaborative arts and practice-based research project explores contemporary perspectives on the everyday lives of women. Participants are invited through an open call to embroider their domestic thoughts, feelings, complaints, and celebrations as words or images onto a yellow duster. Each duster is unique and hand-stitched, transforming it from a cleaning cloth into a voice for women today. They have been stitched by women across the world, proclaiming a multitude of opinions as act of craftivism (craft and activism) that invites conversations and challenges the legacy of so-called women’s work.

Why Dusters?
Dusters are a soft yellow cleaning cloth, popular in the UK. Vanessa Marr and her Domestic Dusters Project have transformed this humble cloth into a metaphor for domesticity because they are mundane, invisible and of low monetary value (like most domestic tasks), yet visually appealing in their brilliant bright yellow. When exhibited, the dusters are strung pegged like flags onto washing line, as multitude of voices, opinions and experiences.

Why red thread and embroidery?
Red thread was chosen to match the duster’s red edged hems, and because of its historical representation of feminine sexuality and fertility.  Embroidery is a skill that has historically provided women with employment and literacy but likewise been used to keep us in our place – preferably quiet, uncomplaining, caring, and at home.The common use of red thread to embellish the dusters is also a central feminine theme that draws them together. It helps situate the collection within an artistic feminist discourse that borrows from the legacy of women’s work with thread to subvert expectations of feminine behaviour and bring power to the work.

Embroidery and dusters make for a powerful combination!

Click here for Domestic Duster Tips/Pack