Textile Artist
Invisible Burden
Aristide Maillol conceived this portrayal of a woman stabbed in the back, falling at the feet of the viewer and arrested in agony, as an anti-war, pacifist statement in 1938. She is shown twisting, balanced precariously on the pedestal, forcing the viewer to ‘look at’ rather than ‘up to’ the subject – a major departure for monumental statuary at the time. The parallel here is intended to bring an altered relationship between the viewer and the woman struck down, in this case by invisible illnesses. With their origins hidden deep in family trees, these diseases strike without justice, and rarely in isolation, leaving an invisible burden for the sufferer to carry. To ‘look at’ these fellow humans with compassion and an absence of judgement is to participate in a pacifist movement well overdue.
Techniques:
Hand stitched, machine quilted using invisible thread.
Materials:
Linen Screen Print Panel.
