Subversive Stitching | Mary Vaneecke

• Unravelling the Case for Reparations

  textile, 37 inches x 41 inches. This work is traveling as part of the Smithsonian Institute's We Are the Story exhibition. Made from two flags, torn, interwoven, whitewashed, emblazoned with a quote by William Faulkner,…

• White Silence is Violence

  textile, 38 x 28. Inspired by a placard carried by a protestor at the Charlottesville rally during the first Trump administration. This is an original copy, handmade by the artist to travel for the first We Are the Stor…

• Poisoning Flint

  6 x 20 x 4. Inspired by the Flint water crisis, this work was included in the 2016 exhibition of the Surface Design Association and the Studio Art Quilt Associates H2O! traveling exhibition. Hand-dyed silk organza and d…

• The Weight of Water II

  12 inches x 20 inches x 20 inches (variable. This work is inspired by water jugs carried in makeshift slings by migrants crossing the border. Families will often write messages like contigo en la distancia (with you on…

• Desconocidos

  textile, 94 inches x 61 inches. I was commissioned by the Migrant Quilt Project to create a quilt commemorating those who died near the border in the Tucson Sector in the FY 2015-16. That year, one hundred and forty-fou…

• Abuela Reads the Headlines

  textile, 55 inches x 84 inches x 1 inch. This work critiques the immigrant detention sites established during the Obama administration. I imagine abuela sitting in her barrio garden inside the ocotillo fence, reading th…