Domestic Dusters: Collaborative embroidery as an act of resistance

Talk: Domestic Dusters: Collaborative embroidery as an act of resistance

Vanessa will reveal the inspiration for the project and the stories behind a selection of the hundreds of hand-embroidered dusters that have contributed by women from across the world, challenging the legacy of so-called women’s work.

Description of Project

The ‘Women & Domesticity – What’s your Perspective?’ collaborative arts project, run by artist and academic Vanessa Marr since 2015, explores contemporary perspectives on the everyday lives of women. Through an open call, participants are invited to embroider their

domestic thoughts, feelings, complaints, and celebrations as words or images onto a yellow duster. Each duster is unique and hand-stitched, transforming it from cleaning cloth to craftivist act. The ever-growing collection includes hundreds of dusters that have been

exhibited and presented widely in community, creative and academic contexts across the UK, mainland Europe, and Florida, USA.

Dusters were selected for embroidery and display as a metaphor for domesticity because they are mundane (like most domestic tasks), yet visually appealing in their brilliant bright yellow. This practice asks how hidden and silenced female domestic experiences can be

voiced through collective craft practice, and explores how the duster, which signifies domesticity through our cultural knowledge of its purpose as a cleaning cloth, can act as a catalyst for change through collective making. Vanessa regularly promotes this work

through exhibition in arts venues, community workshops, and academic publication.