Tutto , 1987

Artist: Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994)

This is one of the textile pieces I saw at Centre Pompidou in Paris this summer.

Tutto, 1987
embroidery floss on linen

In the 1980s, Boetti started a series, of which Tutto is part, and had the embroidery done by Afghani women who arrived in Pakistan as refugees after the Soviet invasion. 

Tutto, detail

There are 84 colours in this piece and every colour is used in the same amount.

You can see the embroidery stitching. It's very fine.

The following three images show Afghanistan embroidered squares that were integrated in textile art works as part of a European initiative to help Afghanistan women affected by the Afghan war.

Lemon Trees in Town
by Italian artist Daniela Cassani
(Afghanistan embroidered square: lemon tree, left)

Rosso Ciliegia (Red Cherry)
by Italian artist Maria Teresa Sansotta
(Afghanistan embroidered square: center top)

Farida's Garden
by me!
(Afghanistan embroidered square: seed, far right)

To see more about the Afghanistan embroidered squares, click here.

Surprise!

I found out this morning via email that my Afghanistan piece was selected to be exhibited at Pfarrhaus, in the city of Hasenweiler, Germany.

 Farida's Garden, 15" x 10"
Farida is the person who embroidered the square on the far right.

My piece is part of a selection of 220 works from 14  countries. From this pool a selection is made for each exhibit as it tours Europe.    

Good news is a nice way to start the week!

Below are 6 of the embroidered Afghanistan squares I bought recently.

Each square is densely filled with stitch and has a border made of over lapping V's to contain those stitches.

Not sure how I will use them yet.

Quilt Shows Everywhere

This is the season of quilt shows.

On the weekend I visited my first this fall. It was hosted by the Yorkshire Rose Quilter's Guild. I am on the look out for possible submissions that are more traditional for the show I am curating in France.

There were many beautiful quilts exhibited. Coral presented two works she started in Verona. She was one of the Verona Trip travellers from March 2010. She learned these new techniques there and finished the works here. Brava!

miniature, Afghanistan hand sewing technique

Scrap quilt project taught by Roberta Bugli in Verona
No new fabric was bought for this! How good does that feel!

detail of above quilt:
 some of the fabric used: an italian mens shirt fabric,
a piece of hand dyed fabric from the class of Marina Tavella

The 9 patch is one of my favorite blocks! It's so versatile. I teach it as a first quilt.

This quilt was made using blocks from the
9 patch exchange I initiated with my guild last year.
It was made by Marg, another Verona Trip traveller!

I was happy to see many works from quilters that have taken classes from me. It is satisfying to see completed quilts started in my classes.

Grace and her work from the foundation piecing class

5-4-3-2-1- the countdown series shown below. No new fabric can be purchased to create the quilts in these classes. What a challenge! But these students did great!

The next show I plan to go to is the Rouge Valley Quilters' Guild Show, October 15-16, 2011. On November 11,12 13 the members of York Heritage Quilters Guild will have their work on exhibit.

afghanistan exhibit

100 pieces from the Afghanistan exhibit were hung at Palazzo Forti right in the historical centre of Verona.

entrance to the art gallery

unloading at Palazzo Forti

opening up the afghanistan project works

ready to hang

Participating countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Spain, Switzerland and Hungary. 

I participated through Ad Maiora, Italy. For more info on the project, click here.

hanging the Italian works

section for Italian works,
mine is on the top right

works from Germany, and the last row on the right, Italy  

the original Afghanistan embroidered square (upper left) is visible in this work
 by Henrika Klemens, entitled Happy Circle

I had to take a picture of the Museum of Modern Art courtyard. Just over the exit was someone's laundry!

reading the comments

One of the things we did today was to read the visitors' comments written in the books left in the galleries and exhibition spaces.

There were people from Brazil, Mexico, USA, UK, Spain, Belgium, France, Finland, Hong Kong, Denmark, Canada (Ottawa) and us 9 Canadians from Toronto plus Italians from Sardinia and all over mainland Italy that experienced Verona Tessile.

work exhibited in Profumeria Caccia

"It was difficult not to touch the work!" was one of the comments ("e stato difficile non toccare"). I understand that. Textile is meant to be touched. I never put my art work under glass for that exact reason.

part of the afghanistan exhibit. work by Yvette Winand, Belgium
title: Eingeschloben in Kaboul

I got to touch many of the works as I helped to pack up. The packages will be sent back to the artists tomorrow.

afghanistan

I went to the Bata Shoe Museum this week. They had an exhibit on socks.

Northern Afghanistan, late 19th century

There is so much lovely hand embroidery on these leather socks. They were worn indoors as soft shoes and were covered with shoes when out-of-doors, hence making them socks.

My art piece below was made incorporating a hand embroidered square made by Farida from  Laghmani, Afghanistan, a farming village north of Kabul. It is the 8 cm square on the far right.

Farida's Garden, detail, 15 inches x 10 inches

By selling their embroidery work, the women contribute substantially to the maintenance of their family. In 2008, there were more than 200 embroiderers creating these squares. 

The DAI (Deutsch-Afghanische Initiative) started the idea of buying these squares and selling them in Europe to be integrated into textile work. Fourteen European countries recently participated in a DAI international project. The participants' textile works were voted on by the countries' public. The top pieces from each participating country were chosen to be part of a big exhibit of 220 pieces. 

My piece was one of 12 selected to represent Italy. It has been touring Europe for the last year and will be part of a smaller selection of 100 pieces extracted from the large exhibit to be seen during Verona Tessile, March 8 to 13, 2011.