War Imagery in Women's Textiles

War Imagery in Women's Textiles
Author: Deborah A. Deacon
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2014-06-04
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1476616604

Through the centuries, women have used textiles to express their ideas and political opinions, creating items of utility that also function as works of art. Beginning with medieval European embroideries and tapestries such as the Bayeux Tapestry, this book examines the ways in which women around the world have recorded the impact of war on their lives using traditional fabric art forms of knitting, sewing, quilting, embroidery, weaving, basketry and rug making. Works from the United States, Canada, Latin America, Asia, the Middle and Near East, and Oceania are analyzed in terms of content and utility, and cultural and economic implications for the women who created them are discussed. Traditional women's work served to document the upheaval in their lives and supplemented their family income. By creating textiles that responded to the chaos of war, women developed new textile traditions, modified old traditions and created a vehicle to express their feelings.

International Women Artists and War, 1560-2023

International Women Artists and War, 1560-2023
Author: Deborah A. Deacon
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2024-09-25
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1476692904

Like many of their male peers, women artists have used their chosen mediums to explore and express their reactions to the violence of war, which they frequently experienced firsthand. The 345 named artists discussed in this book come from diverse backgrounds across hundreds of years. The book divides the 652 covered works of art into five general categories: those that provide support for the war effort, those that oppose war and/or support peace, those that document the impacts of war on the individuals who fight and the civilians who experience it, those that commemorate and memorialize the events and participants in war, and general representations of those who fight. While most of the women who documented the impact of war on those who experienced it were professional artists, self-taught artists have told equally compelling stories in their works. Whether working in a studio or on the battlefield, the women's professionalism and dedication allowed them to convey the impact of war powerfully.

Military Women in World Cinema

Military Women in World Cinema
Author: Deborah A. Deacon
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2023-08-07
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476650772

From British soldier Flora Sandes to the famed World War II Night Witches of the Soviet Air Force, women across the globe have stepped up to defend their countries during every major and minor conflict of the twentieth century, and filmmakers have long attempted to capture their stories. This book analyzes these military women's portrayals in world cinema, examining movies from Israel, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States, Japan and others. It includes theatrical releases, direct-to-video productions, and made-for-television films. Chapters organize films by decade produced, and topics covered include the women's sexuality, maternal and marital status; leadership skills; actual jobs performed; and the accuracy of depiction. The book also discusses how each film reflects the contemporary social issues of the nation in which it was produced.

War and Aesthetics

War and Aesthetics
Author: Jens Bjering
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2024-06-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0262048736

A provocative edited collection that takes an original approach toward the black box of military technology, surveillance, and AI—and reveals the aesthetic dimension of warfare. War and Aesthetics gathers leading artists, political scientists, and scholars to outline the aesthetic dimension of warfare and offer a novel perspective on its contemporary character and the construction of its potential futures. Edited by a team of four scholars, Jens Bjering, Anders Engberg-Pedersen, Solveig Gade, and Christine Strandmose Toft, this timely volume examines warfare through the lens of aesthetics, arguing that the aesthetic configurations of perception, technology, and time are central to the artistic engagement with warfare, just as they are key to military AI, weaponry, and satellite surveillance. People mostly think of war as the violent manifestation of a political rationality. But when war is viewed through the lens of aesthesis—meaning perception and sensibility—military technology becomes an applied science of sensory cognition. An outgrowth of three war seminars that took place in Copenhagen between 2018 and 2021, War and Aesthetics engages in three main areas of inquiry—the rethinking of aesthetics in the field of art and in the military sphere; the exploration of techno-aesthetics and the wider political and theoretical implications of war technology; and finally, the analysis of future temporalities that these technologies produce. The editors gather various traditions and perspectives ranging from literature to media studies to international relations, creating a unique historical and scientific approach that broadly traces the entanglement of war and aesthetics across the arts, social sciences, and humanities from ancient times to the present. As international conflict looms between superpowers, War and Aesthetics presents new and illuminating ways to think about future conflict in a world where violence is only ever a few steps away. Contributors Louise Amoore, Ryan Bishop, Jens Bjering, James Der Derian, Anthony Downey, Anders Engberg-Pedersen, Solveig Gade, Mark B. Hansen, Caroline Holmqvist, Vivienne Jabri, Caren Kaplan, Phil Klay, Kate McLoughlin, Elaine Scarry, Christine Strandmose Toft, Joseph Vogl, Arkadi Zaides

Fray

Fray
Author: Julia Bryan-Wilson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2021-02
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0226077829

In 1974, women in a feminist consciousness-raising group in Eugene, Oregon, formed a mock organization called the Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society. Emblazoning its logo onto t-shirts, the group wryly envisioned female collective textile making as a practice that could upend conventions, threaten state structures, and wreak political havoc. Elaborating on this example as a prehistory to the more recent phenomenon of “craftivism”—the politics and social practices associated with handmaking—Fray explores textiles and their role at the forefront of debates about process, materiality, gender, and race in times of economic upheaval. Closely examining how amateurs and fine artists in the United States and Chile turned to sewing, braiding, knotting, and quilting amid the rise of global manufacturing, Julia Bryan-Wilson argues that textiles unravel the high/low divide and urges us to think flexibly about what the politics of textiles might be. Her case studies from the 1970s through the 1990s—including the improvised costumes of the theater troupe the Cockettes, the braided rag rugs of US artist Harmony Hammond, the thread-based sculptures of Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña, the small hand-sewn tapestries depicting Pinochet’s torture, and the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt—are often taken as evidence of the inherently progressive nature of handcrafted textiles. Fray, however, shows that such methods are recruited to often ambivalent ends, leaving textiles very much “in the fray” of debates about feminized labor, protest cultures, and queer identities; the malleability of cloth and fiber means that textiles can be activated, or stretched, in many ideological directions. The first contemporary art history book to discuss both fine art and amateur registers of handmaking at such an expansive scale, Fray unveils crucial insights into how textiles inhabit the broad space between artistic and political poles—high and low, untrained and highly skilled, conformist and disobedient, craft and art.

A Companion to Textile Culture

A Companion to Textile Culture
Author: Jennifer Harris
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 528
Release: 2020-08-17
Genre: Design
ISBN: 1118768647

A lively and innovative collection of new and recent writings on the cultural contexts of textiles The study of textile culture is a dynamic field of scholarship which spans disciplines and crosses traditional academic boundaries. A Companion to Textile Culture is an expertly curated compendium of new scholarship on both the historical and contemporary cultural dimensions of textiles, bringing together the work of an interdisciplinary team of recognized experts in the field. The Companion provides an expansive examination of textiles within the broader area of visual and material culture, and addresses key issues central to the contemporary study of the subject. A wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches to the subject are explored—technological, anthropological, philosophical, and psychoanalytical, amongst others—and developments that have influenced academic writing about textiles over the past decade are discussed in detail. Uniquely, the text embraces archaeological textiles from the first millennium AD as well as contemporary art and performance work that is still ongoing. This authoritative volume: Offers a balanced presentation of writings from academics, artists, and curators Presents writings from disciplines including histories of art and design, world history, anthropology, archaeology, and literary studies Covers an exceptionally broad chronological and geographical range Provides diverse global, transnational, and narrative perspectives Included numerous images throughout the text to illustrate key concepts A Companion to Textile Culture is an essential resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, instructors, and researchers of textile history, contemporary textiles, art and design, visual and material culture, textile crafts, and museology.

Women and Genocide

Women and Genocide
Author: JoAnn DiGeorgio-Lutz
Publisher: Canadian Scholars’ Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2016-04-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0889615829

Illuminating the unique experiences of women both during and after genocide, JoAnn DiGeorgio-Lutz and Donna Gosbee’s edited collection is a vital addition to genocide scholarship. The contributors revisit genocides of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from Armenia in 1915 to Gujarat in 2002, examining the roles of women as victims, witnesses, survivors, and rescuers. The text underscores women’s experiences as a central yet often overlooked component to the understanding of genocide. Drawing from narratives, memoirs, testimonies, and literature, this groundbreaking volume brings together women’s stories of victimization, trauma, and survival. Each chapter is framed by a consistent methodology to allow for a comparative analysis, revealing the ways in which women’s experiences across genocides are similar and yet profoundly different. By looking at genocide from a gendered perspective, Women and Genocide constitutes an important contribution to feminist research on war and political violence. Featuring critical thinking questions and concise histories of each genocidal period discussed, this highly accessible text is an ideal resource for both students and instructors in this field and for anyone interested in the study of women’s lives in times of violence and conflict.

Female Devotion and Textile Imagery in Medieval English Literature

Female Devotion and Textile Imagery in Medieval English Literature
Author: Anna McKay
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2024-03-05
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1843847132

Uncovers the female voices, lived experiences, and spiritual insights encoded by the imagery of textiles in the Middle Ages.For millennia, women have spoken and read through cloth. The literature and art of the Middle Ages are replete with images of women working cloth, wielding spindles, distaffs, and needles, or sitting at their looms. Yet they have been little explored. Drawing upon the burgeoning field of medieval textile studies, as well as contemporary theories of gender, materiality, and eco-criticism, this study illustrates how textiles provide a hermeneutical alternative to the patriarchally-dominated written word. It puts forward the argument that women's devotion during this period was a "fabricated" phenomenon, a mode of spirituality and religious exegesis expressed, devised, and practised through cloth. Centred on four icons of female devotion (Eve, Mary, St Veronica, and - of course - Christ), the book explores a broad range of narratives from across the rich tapestry of medieval English literature, from the fields of Piers Plowman to the late medieval Morte D'arthur; the devotions of Margery Kempe to the visionary experiences of Julian of Norwich; Gervase of Tilbury's fabulous Otia Imperialia to the anchoritic guidance literature of the Middle Ages; and the innumerable (and oft-forgotten) lives of Christ, prayers, legends, and miracle tales in between.ture, from the fields of Piers Plowman to the late medieval Morte D'arthur; the devotions of Margery Kempe to the visionary experiences of Julian of Norwich; Gervase of Tilbury's fabulous Otia Imperialia to the anchoritic guidance literature of the Middle Ages; and the innumerable (and oft-forgotten) lives of Christ, prayers, legends, and miracle tales in between.ture, from the fields of Piers Plowman to the late medieval Morte D'arthur; the devotions of Margery Kempe to the visionary experiences of Julian of Norwich; Gervase of Tilbury's fabulous Otia Imperialia to the anchoritic guidance literature of the Middle Ages; and the innumerable (and oft-forgotten) lives of Christ, prayers, legends, and miracle tales in between.ture, from the fields of Piers Plowman to the late medieval Morte D'arthur; the devotions of Margery Kempe to the visionary experiences of Julian of Norwich; Gervase of Tilbury's fabulous Otia Imperialia to the anchoritic guidance literature of the Middle Ages; and the innumerable (and oft-forgotten) lives of Christ, prayers, legends, and miracle tales in between.

American Colonial Women and Their Art

American Colonial Women and Their Art
Author: Mary Ellen Snodgrass
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2017-11-10
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1442270977

Less celebrated than their male counterparts, women have been vital contributors to the arts. Works by women of the colonial era represent treasured accomplishments of American culture and still impress us today, centuries after their creation. The breadth of creative expression is as impressive as the women themselves. In American Colonial Women and Their Art: A Chronological Encyclopedia, Mary Ellen Snodgrass follows the history of creative expression from the early 1600s to the late 1700s. Drawing upon primary sources—such as letters, diaries, travel notes, and journals—this timeline encompasses a wide variety of artistic accomplishment, such as: Stitchery, quilting, and rug hooking Painting, sculpture, and sketches Essays, poems, and other writings Dance, acting, and oratory Musical composition and performance Individual talents highlighted in this volume include miniature portraits by Mary Roberts, pastel likenesses by Henrietta Dering Johnston, stagecraft by Elizabeth Sampson Sullivan Ashbridge, basketry by Namumpum Weetamoo, dance by Mary Stagg, metalwork by blacksmith Elizabeth Hager Pratt, calligraphy by Anna “Anastasia” Thomas Wüster, city planning by Deborah Dunch Moody, poems and essays by Phillis Wheatley, and fabric design by Anne Pogue McGinty. Featuring appendices that list individuals by skill and by state—as well as a glossary that clarifies the parameters of genres—this volume is essential to the study of Colonial women’s art. Resurrecting the efforts of women to record, adorn, and illustrate the spirit of their times, American Colonial Women and Their Art is a valuable resource that will be of interest to students and scholars of gender and women’s studies, art history, and American history.