Sewing Conflict: Photography, War and Embroidery
Since the 1980s, Jenny Matthews has been a prolific photographer of women. She has depicted women in protests, including at Greenham Common, and women caught up in conflict. Her camera has taken her worldwide to document wars, uprisings and genocides in Eritrea, Nicaragua and Rwanda. Since 2020, her work has taken a dramatic new direction: into textiles.
Image and image above: Jenny Matthews, Sowing Conflict, Street Level Photoworks 2024 © Tiu Makkonen. Image courtesy of Street Level Photoworks.
Matthews calls her latest works ‘photo quilts’. They piece together photographs from her archive, printed onto cotton linen, with textiles from her travels, from African wax print to Afghan floral shawls. To these elements, machine stitched together in zigzag, Matthew adds colourful hand embellishments in embroidery thread. At times the works resemble protest banners, especially when they are mounted on wooden poles in galleries, and when stitch is used to add slogans, such as the dying cry of George Floyd that launched the Black Lives Matter motto, ‘I Can’t Breathe’. At other times, the embroidered enhancements are more redolent of the decorative elements of genteel tablecloths, but only at first glance. For a photograph of a Guatemalan woman confronted by riot police, for example, Matthews adds a pink floral garland; the ring of roses throws a protective circle around her.
Want to read more of this article?
We are proud to be a subscriber-funded publication with members in 185 countries. We know our readership is passionate about textiles, so we invite you to help us preserve and promote the stories, memories, and histories that fabric holds. Your support allows us to publish our magazine, and also ‘what's on’ information, and subscription interviews, reviews, and long-read articles in our online blog.
ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? CLICK HERE TO ACCESS CONTENT
OR...to continue reading….
*Magazine subscribers automatically get free access to all our online content. We send the access code by email with the publication of each issue. You will also find it on the envelope containing your magazine. Please note the access code changes every issue.*
Matthews calls her latest works ‘photo quilts’. They piece together photographs from her archive, printed onto cotton linen, with textiles from her travels, from African wax print to Afghan floral shawls. To these elements, machine stitched together in zigzag, Matthew adds colourful hand embellishments in embroidery thread. At times the works resemble protest banners, especially when they are mounted on wooden poles in galleries, and when stitch is used to add slogans, such as the dying cry of George Floyd that launched the Black Lives Matter motto, ‘I Can’t Breathe’. At other times, the embroidered enhancements are more redolent of the decorative elements of genteel tablecloths, but only at first glance. For a photograph of a Guatemalan woman confronted by riot police, for example, Matthews adds a pink floral garland; the ring of roses throws a protective circle around her.
Want to read more of this article?
We are proud to be a subscriber-funded publication with members in 185 countries. We know our readership is passionate about textiles, so we invite you to help us preserve and promote the stories, memories, and histories that fabric holds. Your support allows us to publish our magazine, and also ‘what's on’ information, and subscription interviews, reviews, and long-read articles in our online blog.
ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? CLICK HERE TO ACCESS CONTENT
OR...to continue reading….
*Magazine subscribers automatically get free access to all our online content. We send the access code by email with the publication of each issue. You will also find it on the envelope containing your magazine. Please note the access code changes every issue.*