DORIS NEIDL

Women of History

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Currently I am working on a project called “Women of History” – a portrait gallery of “radical” thinking woman. My project deals with women, who have stood up again and again, have maintained their strenght and have shown courage. Their life stories show a long-term perspective. Often overlooked, deliberately overlooked - in a male-dominated time. Even today. The selection of women, of course, can only be a subjective selection, and therefore shows much of myself. The stories will also miss a certain objectivity. But I would like to portray women who inspire me and make me think differently. For example: Irene Morgan, Harriet Tubman, Cilli Wang, Bertha von Suttner, Nadezhda Krupskaya, Petra Herrera, Nwanyeruwa, Friedl Dicker Brandeis, Hannah Arendt, etc.

These are transferprints on Hahnenmuehle paper. I am stitching over them with a red thread. Stitching is considered as something “feminine” – for me it also refers to the strength and vigor of women. (In China for example women stitched secret messages into insoles for their husbands either to protect them or send their love.) The drawings are meant to be quotes. Embroidery is connoted with female handwork. Rooted in the personal, yet shaped in the political, embroidery shows the power of the political on personal life as well as the political implications of personal relationships. For centuries, embroidery has promoted submission to the norms of female obedience, but has also increasingly served as a weapon of resistance.
 

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