Habitat Regina Doors And More Auction & Soiree • MARCH 7, 2020
Every year for the past four years I have created an art piece to be auctioned off at the Doors and More Fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity. This year is no different.
I chose an ironing board this year. I loved the ironing board immediately. Seeing the past through the lens of the present helped me appreciate the lovely worn look about it. I took it home to start planning my project. I did a bit of research and have loosely determined that this wooden ironing board was likely from the 1940s.
I loved the historical signifigance of the of the ironing board as a representation of the culture of the women who may have used it and how that relates to my personal current world view. A women's conventional role of caring for her family, issues of identity and cultural understanding in relation to my current love of sewing as an art tool rather than one of domestic production, and thrift.
In my imagination, I began to explore the idea of who may have used the board over the years and I immediately thought of my paternal grandmother who spent many hours working on her ironing board. She was methodical in her ironing of the doilies she crocheted and the pillowcases she had embroidered. Those childhood memeries became my starting place for the final piece you see below.
© Kristin MacPherson Ironing board, natural and manmade fabrics, washi papers, lace, trims, glass bead, plastic bead, appliqués, embroidery thread, cotton and metallic thread
© Kristin MacPherson Ironing board, natural and manmade fabrics, washi papers, lace, trims, glass bead, plastic bead, appliqués, embroidery thread, cotton and metallic thread
Keeping true to the original function of the piece I decide to create a fabric art collage to drape over the original structure of the ironing board thereby leaving the original patina of the “antique” unchanged.
I chose to embroider the figure onto the fabric and surround her with doilies and beading and loose stitching. I wanted to capture the handmade DIY attitude of my grandparent’s generation, but breaking the mold of sewing and using a traditionally inspired fibres in a modern deconstructed way.
As the piece evolved I changed my mind about giving her embroidered hair and decided on a decorative headdress inspired by the prized, textural home decorations that my grandmother handmade and loved and gently cared for.
I chose the figure to represent the woman in traditional housewife/homemaker roles that were the standard of most women’s lives in that time period. The women is reclined on her bed of handmade texture interacting with her lifework. It is meant to resonate with cultural understandings of feminine labor.
Habitat Regina Doors And More Auction & Soiree MARCH 7, 2020
Work In Progress Photograph. © Kristin MacPherson Ironing board, natural and manmade fabrics, washi papers, lace, trims, glass bead, plastic bead, appliqués, embroidery thread, cotton and metallic thread
© Kristin MacPherson Ironing board, natural and manmade fabrics, washi papers, lace, trims, glass bead, plastic bead, appliqués, embroidery thread, cotton and metallic thread
