自十八世紀以來，Sewing Circle（縫紉圈）是藉著針黹藝術集結女性來分享想法的聚會。一連數天，5個縫紉圈聚集了300位參加者來回應這提問，有的來刺繡自己的答案，有的為別人刺繡答案，她們毋須有刺繡經驗，只須在藝術家 Marie Watt 的團隊事先以皺紋紙帶貼上的草稿布上用針線盡情發揮自己的創意。
“What do you want to sing a song for in this moment?”
Since the 18th century, Sewing Circles were formed to bring women together to share ideas while engaging in the art of needlework. Over several days, five Sewing Circles were established, and 300 participants came together to express their thoughts and inspiration through embroidery. Some participants embroidered their own answers, while others embroidered answers for their peers. No prior embroidery experience was necessary; all participants needed to do was unleash their creativity with thread and needle, and sew their thoughts onto the fabric lined by masking tapes, which were prepared by the artist Marie Watt and her team.
2022 年春天，Marie在惠特尼美國藝術博物館（Whitney Museum of American Art）舉辦了一系列縫紉圈活動。「我們在工作室，模仿每位參加者的手，把收集回來的答案轉移到回收的羊毛毯上；如果手寫的文字是一個人身體的延伸和聲音的韻律，那麼這些由跨越年代的手所刺繡出來的布片，就像擴音器般把字面的含義放大。」Marie説。
“I like to say that I set the table and what happens after that is created by everybody in that shared space. In these gatherings, we sit at a long continuous table which I compare to a circle. All ages are welcome. No sewing experience is required, it’s often a cross generational, cross disciplinary, multicultural gathering. When your eyes are diverted and you are working with something as familiar and intimate as cloth, ideas flow and people connect. For me, it mimics an indigenous way of teaching and learning. A way of teaching and learning that has always existed prior to western academic institutions. By having different cultures, generations, act around the table it’s a different way of teaching and learning. The sewing circles aren’t a means to an end or to make some object, they are a means to connect with neighbors and strangers and oneself.”
Marie Watt is an artist with German-Scott ancestry. Her complex background and points of influence are reflected profoundly in her work featuring Indigenous knowledge, Iroquois protofeminism, matriarchal structures of certain Native American tribes, the rise of social activism throughout the 20th century, and the anti-war and anti-hate content of 1960s and 1970s music.
The art week in Hong Kong that took place during March has attracted lots of enthusiasts from around the world, and I had the opportunity to meet Aniko Erdosi, the director of MARC STRAUS GALLERY from New York, at the Oil Street Art Space. Through our conversation, I learned about their exhibition, Singing Everything, which resonated with the philosophy behind my project, SLOW STiTCH NOMAD.
In the spring of 2022 Marie Watt facilitated a series of Sewing circles at the Whitney Museum of American art. “In my studio we worked to mimic the hand of each participant, and translated the answers from participants into panels of reclaimed wool blankets. If the handwritten word is an extension of one’s body and the cadence of one’s voice, then all the intergenerational hands embroidering these panels amplify the intention.” Marie said.
Sewing the tinned bells and jingles on reclaimed wool blankets, “Blankets are danced and so are jingles, there is something healing about them both. They are objects of comfort by way of touch or sound.” Marie described.
The Jingle Dress Dance began as a healing ritual in the Ojibwe tribe in the 1910s during the influenza pandemic and It was also considered as a radical act. In 1883, the United States banned Indigenous ceremonial gatherings. Though the ban was repealed in 1978 with the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, during its century-long prohibition the Jingle Dress Dance was shared with other tribal communities. Today it is a pow-wow dance and continues to be associated with healing.
In the entrance of the gallery, there is a 24-foot-long neon sign spelling out the words “deer, skywalker, heron, bass, great lake, woodland, beaver, turtle, wolf, lowly, muskrat, rat”. While the piece represents a new direction in Marie’s work, she views neon as an extension of beadwork, because they both envelop light, color, and sound, various hues that evoke the sky on the horizon during sunset and sunrise.
While drawing from long craft traditions such as textile or glass work, Marie is expanding her work by including contemporary stories and both individual and collective experiences. Her primary interest is to think about art as more experiential, rather than only visual. She deals with history and presents it in a form that is characterized by humanity and forms platforms that are open to new thoughts about the past, present and future.
Whether a shirt or a blanket, these are the items that protect us against cold and external dangers, just like we wrap ourselves in it like a second skin. Textiles consistently play a role in Marie’s works, especially in Blanket Stories she reconstructed the materials that were actually donated by people, embedded with their own histories before even becoming part of her projects. A focus in recent years has been sewn tapestries, often produced through collaboration with sewing circles around North America. Social engagements in which the fellowship and storytelling around the table can be crucial to the resultant object.
