Ok…
Why is stitching different to a drawn line?
Why do I choose to stitch onto these garments, this fabric?
I could write/draw on them couldn’t I? And sometimes I do, in order to keep the stitches from straying, then the drawn line is washed out. I could have printed the words.
Why stitch then?
This is why I bought the book about semiotics, in order to think about (and maybe answer)these questions properly.
I hand stitch the words. People are astonished…”You can programme sewing machines to write now you know!” “Are you mad?” I don’t think I am mad, but… to stitch words with a sewing machine is soulless as far as I’m concerned. Neither can I type poetry. They have to be handwritten… handstitched…
I think it is to do with speed – or rather the lack of it.
I think it is to do with endurance
I think it is to do with patience
I think it is to do with concentration
I think it is to do with repetition
I think it is to do with obsession
It is certainly to do with aesthetics
Sewing by hand shows my audience that I am serious. These words have importance.
What I sew them onto has significance. The garments I choose have personal resonance. I might have worn them, my parents might have worn them. They are, for the most part, natural fibres, not man-made. Personal taste. Sewing onto a crimplene dress, for me, would be unpleasant to do. I would not enjoy it, and would not like the look of what I had made.
Also, I am showing off. I have skill. I know it, I like other people to know it. That too, tells them I’m serious.
(However… using textiles and having a “craft” skill has its down side, presumptions are made about me, and the art, that I try to shake off. I’m clearly giving off my own “signs”.)
What I’m interested in here, with these items of respectability I am stitching, are the signs I’m using. I have said previously that I use the clothes as a shortcut/shorthand. They say things about me, my background, class, gender, taste… so then it lends context instantly to what I stitch on.
But I’m still asking myself, why stitches instead of a drawn line, or a printed mark?
The “I think…” list above could equally apply to those processes.
So what are stitches that a drawn line isn’t?
Stitches go through, become part of.
Stitches make holes.
Stitches can be removed.
Stitches can fix other layers.
Stitches can repair damage.
So the words I stitch become part of the garment, together they become something that wasn’t there before.
The needle affects the garment, it could damage at the same time as it repairs.
The words can be removed, and depending on the fabric, and laundry process, could leave no trace.
Other layers can be attached, obscuring, or adding, emphasising message, adding further signs/messages/meanings.
I think this discussion with myself is helping.
In the joint blog “pix” I will try to discover the significance of the single stitch, in relation to Bo’s single pixel. I’m struggling a bit there…
More reading?
