Designs for Life: Uniting a Community Through Textile Art and Bioscience

Wow, embroidered brains—where have I seen that before? Dave called me at home about a week ago, saying there was a show at the Warneford that I wouldn’t believe. He said it had pictures of deadly diseases, like breast cancer and HIV. Because of my recent fascination with MRI’s and all those colorful pictures of human insides, I thought he was joking. I had, after all, just put up my embroidered brain patches in the Warneford’s Apple Room.

But whereas I have been embroidering miniature versions of human organs, the show at Warneford’s Artscape Gallery contained super-magnified images of microscopic threats to human health and survival.

The exhibit, called “Designs for Life,” is an impressive textile collaboration, rivaling The Dinner Party in scope, complexity and emphasis on communal participation.

This textile art/science project reveals and celebrates the microbes and particulate matter that affect human health. 30 panels, each 50×50 cm, were created through the efforts of the lead designer Anne Griffiths, 1000 scientists and 150 members of the Womens Institute of Oxfordshire. Diamond Light Source, the scientific partner in the project, contributed images from its synchrotron, a ‘super microscope’ capable of magnifying a flu virus or Alzheimer plaque to reveal its structure and aid in biomedical research.

 

Techniques include hand-dyeing of fabric, hand and machine embroidery, quilting and appliqué. A friend once told me that because of osteoporosis, her bones “looked like lace.” In this panel on osteoporosis, layers of transparent scrim are edged with needle lace:

 

(to be continued)

Needlework and Intellectual Improvement

“‘Needlework and intellectual improvement,’ she wrote drily, ‘are naturally in a state of warfare.'”

Mary Lamb, as quoted in “Evangelists for the bard,” Review, Saturday Guardian, 05.05.07.

Extracts from a biography on Mary Lamb

Newest Merit Badges on Display at the Warneford

Thanks to Carolyn Guillot, I have my first art exhibit in Oxford, albeit very informal. Six of my series of “pressure point” merit badges will be on display at a group show in the Psychiatry Department’s Common Room, Warneford Hospital, through mid-June.

The images are framed in two’s:

Migraine Pain and Frown Lines:

Ovaries and Brain:

Brain (different view) and Intestines:

Menopausal symptoms, such as depression, migraines and IBS, are caused by hormonal changes that interact with the brain and other organs in the body. This is just a representative example, or my “favorites.” I haven’t stitched a TMJ or hypothyroidism patch yet, or a host of other related conditions, but there are so many possibilities. I love browsing the health and beauty web sites, and always look for pamphlets in doctors’ offices to add to my research files. I have way more material than I can stitch, and there are other subjects I’m just as interested in, but I do find medical conditions fascinating.

 

Denise Perreault’s Fabulous Glass Tile Curtain

Denise Perreault has created yet another beautiful window adornment, this time from vitreous glass tiles:

Tara’s Tiles, 2007

By Denise Perreault of Boulder, Colorado
Dimensions: 88″ wide by 28″ long
Materials: 1300 1/2″ square Italian and Chinese transparent architectural tiles in 26 colors; 1800 4mm Swarovski crystals; size 11 rainbow topaz glass seed beads; and large cut crystals, on brass rod
Time to complete: over 1 year

(click detail to enlarge)

Denise loves to take on “large scale [projects] with small beads,” and wrote an article with that title and subject in the May/June 2000 Beadwork. She is skilled with a number of weaving techniques, but in this case she square-stitched a bezel in two-drop ladder stitch around each and every tile. She used 5 pound test monofilament to string and attach all components to the brass rod

More stunning glass curtains by Denise Perreault

Scutelliphily: Patch or Badge Collecting

Scutelliphily: apparently this is a real word, or at least it’s listed in wikipedia. I’d never heard of it, but sharonb’s inaminuteago has this interesting post about patch collectors, aka scutelliphily.

Sometimes it seems like I can’t catch up with the world, but if it weren’t for all those scutelliphists I followed around, there might never have been any .

Female Merit Badges

Custom Header for Stabbed!

For years I’ve played around with creating my own stitched lettering, that could eventually become a font.  Yep, you guessed it, I’ve taken my first stab at a stitched header.

Should I say Vincent’s Baby?

Vincent’s Baby* is now uploaded to CallForEntry.org, so that I can submit my application to Boulder Open Studios soon. There is also a short statement about the patch and the “screaming baby body of work,” which I plan to expand in time for the show next October:

If artists had babies, what would they look like? How would they render their own offspring? What’s more egocentric than a baby? How fun to mimic the styles of other artists. A patch is personal expression and an ID tag. You could wear this.

*I decided to go with the more formal Vincent, as I don’t believe VVG ever addressed with a nickname.

Neo-cortextiles

I was delighted to receive an invitation to submit from Bill Harbaugh, the curator of The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art, after my recent post. The two-inch badge, titled Brain Slice is embroidery and applique on one of the commercially-stitched patches I often use. It’s the only brain embroidery that I consider finished at this time, so I sent them the image, along with the following statement:

I’m fascinated by the new and old and how they intersect. I try to keep informed on the latest scientific findings and look for ways in my artwork to combine them with references to historical art and events. Most recently, I have become interested in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and other imaging technologies, which have allowed us access to a new visual terrain, one that appears to be highly tactile. It is the urge to explore these with thread and needle, in texture, color, line and shape, that led me to try my hand at stitching the circuitry of the brain.

My previous work, miniature, hand-embroidered patches about female rites of passage, have been published in Harpers, Ms. and other publications. The female merit badges identified biological and behavioral aspects of being female, to question, celebrate and amuse. I’ve also created emblems that pair medieval imagery with computers and technology. Recent “pressure point patches” illustrate mind-body conditions such as chronic pain and menopausal symptoms.

I had forgotten to give credit to Craft:, which is where I discovered the beautiful crocheted brain

and other brain art in the first place.

Brain Art

I thought I was the first person in the universe to stitch brain images, but maybe not. I started collecting MRI images, and stitched my first brain “patches” in early 2004. I was also stitching my first guts and heart, so it seemed like I had a nice Wizard of Oz theme going. But the brains were especially seductive, because of the latest MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) technology. Lush images in super-saturated colors had been appearing in the media, as illustrations of the latest discoveries in neuroscience.

This brain slice was the first image, and I also have a work-in-progress that includes a stitched brain.

I’m not the only one attracted to neuroscience imagery. There is even a Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art, and I’m curious if they’ll consider my renditions precise enough.

Vinny’s Baby