Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
"Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community" spotlights an international, intergenerational, intersectional mix of thirty artists who are remixing fiber craft traditions, such as crochet, embroidery, quilting, and sewing, while reconsidering the binaries of art and craft, masculine and feminine, and gay and straight. Designed by Todd Oldham and edited by John Chaich, this 192-page, hardcover, 8 x 10-inch book features full-color spreads of each artist's work, along with intimate details of selections and artist studios, as well as an introductory essay by Chaich, who curated the exhibition of the same name that inspired this book. To further examine how queerness informs their work in fiber and textiles, or vice versa, the artists are interviewed by makers and thinkers from the worlds of dance, design, fashion, media, music, museums, scholarship, and more--many members of the LGBTQ community themselves, and otherwise passionate allies. Smart yet playful, critical yet celebratory, the resulting dialogues are as colorful, challenging, personal, and universal as the works discussed and talents showcased. "Queer Threads" is not just an exploration of fiber art and crafts, but also a celebration of the creativity, diversity, and vibrancy of contemporary queer culture.
Synopsis
Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community showcases twenty-nine artists who are moving through the narrow space that is gay or straight, biological or social, craft and fine art--and doing so explicitly through their work in fiber and textile. Loaded with gender connotations and power hierarchies, fiber-based handicrafts such as crochet, embroidery, knitting, macrame, quilting, and sewing provide a fitting platform for examining tastes, roles, and relationships socialized within and around gay and lesbian culture, as well as our reactions to the traditional home and cultures in which we were raised. This book evolves from an exhibition of the same name, that John Chaich curated in 2014 at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay & Lesbian Art in New York City, the first dedicated LGBTQ art museum in the world with a mission to exhibit and preserve LGBTQ art and foster the artists who create it. While other recent, high-profile fiber and textile exhibitions have featured several of the artists in Queer Threads, the Leslie-Lohman exhibition marked the first time these works were shown together to specifically examine the works' queerness. To further examine how queerness informs each featured artist's work in fiber and textiles, or vice versa, this book features interviewers from the worlds of music, fashion, media, dance, museums, and scholarship who are makers and thinkers themselves, many members of the queer community if not powerful allies. The resulting dialogues are as fun, challenging, personal, and universal as the ideas in the works discussed.