I saw the Jewelry Code exhibition live in Munich last week and was blown away by the powerful messages these female artists conveyed. Using data in a post-truth world in our needlework art is a new concept to me and one that I think is worth exploring and implementing. Although the initiative started in Kazakhstan, more than 60 artists from 28 countries contributed wearable art pieces. Best of all: you can view the entire exhibition online! Let’s have a look at some of these pieces in a bit more detail.
The above piece, “QizUl” by Zhanna Assanova from Kazakhstan, was turned into a necklace in the exhibition. The size of the blue zipper flowers represents the percentage of Kazakh women with a particular name. All these names literally express the wish for a son rather than the daughter that was born. A few days later, I saw an ARTE documentary on YouTube on the preference for a boy in India and China, and how, luckily, that is changing now.
The above brooches by Norea Persdotter Wallström of Sweden were the only example of embroidered jewellery in the Jewelry Code exhibition. Each piece represents a day of emotion tracking. Each colour represents an emotion, and the number/size of the stitches indicates how strongly or for how long that emotion was felt.
Grab a cuppa, explore the online exhibition at leisure, and be inspired by the stories these female artisans tell through their data, turned into jewellery.
On a personal note. My husband, the cat Gijs and I have just returned home after 13 weeks of living in very basic temporary accommodation. In early December, I discovered water running off the ceiling in the basement of our apartment block. My husband notified the landlord immediately, but they chose to ignore it for nearly two weeks. By then, our apartment and that of our downstairs neighbour had become uninhabitable due to wet walls and mould (to which I developed a horrific skin reaction and wasn’t allowed back in the home on doctor’s orders). In the end, we were promised almost every week that “this week” the repairs would be executed and we could return home. Since it never happened, we decided to do part of the work ourselves in the end. That’s why there was no blog post last week.
Whilst we are grateful to be home again, we are also exhausted. Having to leave your home in an instant, through no fault of your own, isn’t for the faint-hearted. Unshakeable truths were not as unshakeable as we thought. We thought that these kinds of things did not happen to decent people in the developed world. Think again. There’s a severe housing crisis in almost every country of this so-called “developed world”. Landlords and corporations do not necessarily feel compelled to abide by the law.
Equally, being well-insured is not always helpful either. Yes, we were entitled to live in a hotel on a full-board basis. However, it happened 10 days before Christmas. All hotels were booked in this very touristy area. And some hotels would have taken Gijs the dog, but none would have taken Gijs the cat. Leaving our cat behind, for what turned out to be 13 weeks, was never an option for us. This meant that we were fully at the mercy of our landlord.
The whole situation brought us a new perspective on the (Ukrainian) refugees who live next door. We sometimes remarked that they don’t speak much German after so many years here. But we get that now. Being forced to leave your home and not knowing when you can return, almost certainly knocks you off your feet. It leaves you with little headspace to do anything other than the bare minimum.
In the coming weeks, I will be busy expanding my online eLearning Platform and my community. Although I couldn’t access my medieval embroidery, I did enjoy doing my crossstitches during our weekly Stitch & Chats. Being able to relax and vent a bit about the situation was priceless to me. Thank you very much for that!
0 Comments