Red and thread 🧶
A small change to the programme before I begin this week’s issue: going forward I’ve decided to release the idea of a defined prompt as it felt too rigid, but there will be themes to the posts which will be apparent and you are free to do with them what you will. Some pieces will be longer, research-based texts with references for further reading and exploration of the theme, others will simply be visual diaries or blog-style posts with snippets from my own life, showing the concept of the newsletter in practice.
Red is having a moment. Usually, I don’t follow trends all too closely, but red has been a trusted staple colour in the worlds of art, crafts and nail art for a long time and I think its current popularity is creating an opportunity to explore the bridges between these worlds.
This time last year I went to the New Contemporaries exhibition at the South London Gallery in Peckham, where red was used by several artists to exemplify resistance, memory and identity.
I’d really recommend taking a look at the New Contemporaries website where you can view the artists that were part of the exhibition, there were so many thought-provoking textile-based pieces and it was one of the best shows I saw last year.
Yarn is a material commonly used for themes of memory, both individual and cultural - Cecilia Vicuña and Sheila Hicks are two artists who come to mind, who use yarn and various forms of weaving and tying threads to represent indigenous identities and experiences. I plan on doing a closer look at both artists later in the year.
Last weekend I went to The Whitworth in Manchester to see the current exhibition Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery, where red threads feature prominently amongst the intricate embroidery on display.
Resistance is of course a strong theme, but I also learned about how embroidery is truly part of the fabric of Palestinian cultural heritage. The mourning dress shown below is a piece that has really stuck with me.
The description reads: ‘This dress belonged to a widow. The colour blue was used in grief, with red thread introduced again as a sign a woman was ready for re-marriage. Widows might also dye their colourful embroidery dark indigo after bereavement, with the mourning period considered over once the dye faded and the embroidery’s bright shades reappeared’.Â
In this case, the red thread can be seen as a sign of the strength it takes to move through grief, and a small but powerful symbol of the experience that the woman has overcome. It is a colour associated with pain, but also with power. We can therefore say that red is a colour of resilience.
It’s in this context that Louise Bourgeois uses red. The red hands of Louise and her long-time assistant Jerry Gorovoy depicted in ‘10am is when you come to me’ are a point at which the colour and the act of handmaking intersect. Louise said of the work that ‘Red is an affirmation at any cost – regardless of the dangers in fighting – of contradiction, of aggression. It’s symbolic of the intensity of the emotions involved.’
In her watercolour paintings made in collaboration with Tracey Emin, red represents the power and resilience of women, especially in relation to the pain of childbirth and the strength of emotion a mother feels for her child.
It’s clear from the various works we’ve looked at here that red carries a lot of symbolism and is often used to represent identity, experience and memory in particular because it is so vivid and strong. It’s an assertive colour, and gives weight and importance to the matter it is being used to represent.
Whether you have an interest in nail art or not, you will know that red is a classic nail colour. It’s a colour that people choose with the purpose of creating a feeling about themselves which is simultaneously perceived by others. It’s a common choice for people who want to feel sophisticated, powerful and put together.
The current red nail trend is largely associated with the mob wife aesthetic (which I love!), and which again is synonymous with power and manipulating the way in which the wearer is perceived. Something I enjoy doing with this newsletter is starting out with a rough idea and seeing where it takes me, and in researching red manicures I came across the below
image of Princess Diana wearing a pink blouse with red nails, a colour combination way ahead of its time and one which to me epitomises the independence, femininity and strength that a red nail can give us.Â
I have a whole nail art reference gallery to share with you along the theme of red and thread, but I’ll send it out separately as Substack is telling me that this issue is too long to be viewed in full and I want you to be able to access it easily, so keep a lookout for it in your inbox!
The Spiralling Craft Club continues this Tuesday at 6pm - 8pm at Altogether Otherwise - you can book your place here!
Thank you for reading and/or listening <3