Saturday 12 March 2016

Women and Domesticity Exhibition

More news for the Domestic Dusters Project...

"Beyond excited to be exhibiting a large selection of dusters from the Women & Domesticity collection at the De La Warr Pavilion this weekend! They're on both levels of the north stairs (street side) until later this week. Visit https://domesticdusters.wordpress.com/2016/03/05/duster-collection-now-live-at-the-de-la-warr-pavilion/ to join the project and http://www.dlwp.com/event/pechakucha-20x20-night to book a ticket for Tuesday evening's PechaKucha talks when I'll taking my turn and talking about the project." Vanessa Marr





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The Domestic Dusters exhibition has moved on! to:

HOME & ART: CREATING, PERFORMING AND RESEARCHING HOME AT THE GEFFRYE MUSEUM
Friday 1st May 2015
The event is being organised by the Centre of Studies of Home and the Queen Mary University London. The dusters will be hung for the day, pop-up style as before, during the event so all the delegates will get a chance to see them. Vanessa will be giving a talk about the project.



How it all began...

I'm delighted to be part of this upcoming exhibition on Women and DomesticityThe Private View will be held from 2-5pm on Saturday 28th February.
We will also be taking donations for Women's Aid at this event.
Studio 11, The Old Printworks, 20 Wharf Road, Eastbourne, BN21 3UG.
The studio is just a few minutes walk from Eastbourne train station and there is parking nearby.


Curated by Vanessa Marr, women were invited to sew their opinions on to a yellow duster.
"WHAT’S YOUR OPINION?
Love it, loath it, fear it, resent it, or embrace it?
Is it an out-dated expectation or a predictable reality?
What does it mean to you personally?Stitch your perspective onto a duster!"

Here's what I stitched for the show:


Title: Call of Duty

When considering housework I tend to groan inwardly and grit my teeth. It’s like a chore to be endured rather than a task to be enjoyed. I don’t experience the satisfaction of a ‘job well done’ rather a mental image of the Forth Bridge that needs constant attention just to keep going.

I have a collection of homemaking manuals from the '40s -'50s and I particularly enjoy the jolly enthusiasm with which Good Housekeeping explains how to clean your house properly. I’ve stitched their cleaning descriptions exactly, to form the text, but I’ve placed the whole activity within the context of a Play Station game. I enjoyed the notion of ‘housework’ as an entertainment - however unlikely. ‘Call of Duty’ is a pun on the name of a popular series of computer games - but the title seemed very apt here.

Materials: Blue and red embroidery thread sewn onto a yellow duster.
J-cloth cut-out backed with interfacing and sewn on with blue thread.
Added buttons and blue fabric pen lines.
Laundry label attached by 2 small safety pins.




Visit Vanessa's blog for more information and images: