ExhibitionsThe Power of Embroidery

16 Hughes St, Mile End
1 May - 30 Jun 2024

Embroidery through the ages has reflected social, spiritual, and cultural apects of life. It has been used as embellishment to denote prestige and power in many cultures.

Embroidery can also portray significant events or provide insights into daily life.

Stitch has the power to tell a story, as in the cases of an Arpillera from Chile, a South African embroidery from Zululand depicting a funeral of an Aids victim, and a Hmong story cloth showing people fleeing across the Mekong River to escape the armed soldiers and aeroplanes dropping bombs and then a scene of a Thai refugee camp with armed guards. The Arpillera depicts a demonstration of mourning women, each carrying an image of her missing man, with a military vehicle, in which the men were taken away, with tracer bullets across the night sky. A breastplate depicts Simon Bolivar, who led the revolutions against Spanish rule in South America.