Flowers and Leave or Nature, Technology, Women and Cyborgs: Jacquard Weavings that explore floral patterns as domestic decoration
Flowers and Leaves #11: cyclamen 2003, 60 x 40".
The definitions of ‘nature’ reveal a range of contradictory meanings. Nature often suggests that, which is separate from human activity and is used to project desires seemingly unattainable, thus “nature becomes romanticized, patronized and forever the passive recipient of our desires”. Donna Harraway in the Cyborg Manifesto proposes more fluid boundaries between humans, animals and machines instead of defining them as opositional or binary positions. Computers and weaving have been connected by Sadie Plant in ‘Zeros and Ones’ and weaving, of course, is always a digital process. I am also interested in exploring issues of ‘decoration’ and its relationship to the ‘feminine’ reflected textiles. I use Muybridge’s images from the 19th century, which show women doing mostly domestic or mundane tasks. They explore/contradict assumptions between nature, culture and technology as gendered fields.
Tansy: or what is Nature: 2002, 75 x 40"
Flowers and Leaves #20: muy.broom 2003, 63 x 40"
.....when women skip (in) paradise, 2002, 76 x 40", Jacquard weaving
Flowers and Leaves #2: Cyborg women weave translucent thought....1998, 72 x 40" Jacquard weaving