Iviva Olenick

 

Stitchcraft

Stitchcraft revives “women’s crafts” of embroidery, oral narratives and herbalism to center voices, artifacts, craft-making and health of people with wombs. In bi-monthly, virtual embroidery circles, we gather to provide and receive feedback on craft projects; learn new embroidery techniques; and discuss an open-ended range of ideas, concerns and issues, which subsequently feed our craft projects. Stitchcraft also includes a study of women’s herbalism through consultation with certified herbalists representing different cultural approaches, reading and research, including Ashkenazi Herbalism by Deatra Cohen and Adam Siegel. 

My Stitchcraft artworks  below comprise life-sized embroideries of women’s bodies, replacing reproductive organs with plants historically used to induce menstruation. Some artworks include female archetypes from pre-history along with mythologized plants, suggesting that humans’ sense of mystery and attempts to master the natural world often mirror attitudes towards female bodies.

My artworks often start with a base layer of natural dyes and/or plant imprints, including purple leaf sand cherry tree leaves, marigolds, indigo leaves and cochineal, atop which I layer seed beads and embroidery stitches – French knots, chain stitch, satin stitch, backstitch. Pinned directly to the wall, these textiles undulate and reverberate, creating movement and human-ness rather than the stasis of stretched paintings.

 

Myths of Plants and Women from (Pre)History. 2023. Embroidery on fabric with plant prints and dyes (rose petals, avocado pits, indigo, purple leaf sandcherry tree leaves); handgrown and spun cotton thread; linen thread dyed with avocado, indigo, goldenrod, sumac, woad seeds, purple leaf sandcherry tree leaves, onion skins, rust and commercially dyed threads.