Sexual Revolution
Becka Rahn
2008
“In so many ages and so many places, a young girl is considered the
property of her father, brothers, or husband. She is not given the
opportunity to study and pursue a dream, but is expected to marry and
have children or become a commodity to trade for family status and
prestige. My experience has been very different. This piece is a wish
for all young girls to experience the freedom that I have enjoyed by
growing up in the time and place that I did.
In this piece, I used the idea of fertility to represent that freedom,
because it is used as a symbol in many cultures. Acorns, snakes,
elephants, lotus blossoms, rice, pine cones, frogs and pomegranates
are all motifs embroidered and woven in to textiles used to wish
fertility to a new bride. In the style of “Space Invaders”, a video
game representing my place and time in history, the girl in the
picture is shooting down these symbols. The number 1960 is the date
that the birth control pill was approved. The letters RSR are my
initials.
Hand embroidered with hand-stitched appliqué. Cotton threads and
fabric.”
You can see this piece in person as part of the “Freedom: The Fiber of our Nation” show at the Textile Center Joan Mondale Gallery, now through October 18.
I love letters. Fonts, typefaces, alphabet books. I have made a bunch of “Impromptu Alphabet” pieces and wondered if I had enough letters to spell something. Sure enough! These are some of the most fun things to make. I have a scrap bin that lives on a table next to my sewing machine. Everything that is too-small-to-fold-up but too-big-to-throw-away ends up in the bin. For these I pull out whatever I put my hands on and see if I can make a letter. There’s never a pattern and I have learned that some letters are easier than others.
