Astri Snodgrass: Infinite Plume
Through calligraphic handwriting, drawing, and handspinning, I reimagine the sexist trope of the spinster. She is chronically underestimated and dismissed for both her association with so-called 鈥渨omen鈥檚 work鈥� and for symbolizing a supposedly pitiful, lonely life outside of marriage and motherhood. In my work, the spinster is a queer figure, a storyteller and a maker, who represents creative potential.
Tall paper scrolls both reveal and conceal handwritten text, suggesting competing desires to both encrypt and disseminate information. Coded language and self censorship have long been creative strategies of survival and solidarity. In their love letters, Rachel Carson, the author of the 1962 book Silent Spring, and Dorothy Freeman, developed their own codes: letters destined for 鈥渢he strong box鈥� were ones to be destroyed after reading.
The word drafting can refer to writing, drawing, and, in spinning, pulling fibers to be twisted into yarn. Drafting implies revision, or re-vision, in the sense of looking again: at women鈥檚 work, at queer history, and at a culture that regards textiles 鈥� and their makers 鈥� as disposable.
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Through calligraphic handwriting, drawing, and handspinning, I reimagine the sexist trope of the spinster. She is chronically underestimated and dismissed for both her association with so-called 鈥渨omen鈥檚 work鈥� and for symbolizing a supposedly pitiful, lonely life outside of marriage and motherhood. In my work, the spinster is a queer figure, a storyteller and a maker, who represents creative potential.
Tall paper scrolls both reveal and conceal handwritten text, suggesting competing desires to both encrypt and disseminate information. Coded language and self censorship have long been creative strategies of survival and solidarity. In their love letters, Rachel Carson, the author of the 1962 book Silent Spring, and Dorothy Freeman, developed their own codes: letters destined for 鈥渢he strong box鈥� were ones to be destroyed after reading.
The word drafting can refer to writing, drawing, and, in spinning, pulling fibers to be twisted into yarn. Drafting implies revision, or re-vision, in the sense of looking again: at women鈥檚 work, at queer history, and at a culture that regards textiles 鈥� and their makers 鈥� as disposable.
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