Artist Angela Ellsworth has been getting a lot of attention for her gorgeous and horrifying Seer Bonnets, including a feature in the current FiberArts Magazine.
Angela works from her Mormon background and ancestry to comment on and critique polygamy, forced communal domesticity, and the idea of sister wives. The work re-examines the experience of pioneer Mormons. The first image includes 9 bonnets nodding to Angela's great, great grandfathers 9 wives.
The detail in her work is amazing as she covers, totally covers the bonnets with pearlized corsage pins, covering the outside with a pearly surface, also reminds me of BB's, and the lining with sharp pins, making them into objects no one wants to wear. Her craftmanship is quite impressive.
Her work also includes performances that look quite intriguing these performances include:
solemn sister wives doing the Electric Slide in pastel prairie dresses, hairdos with frontal poufs, and strap-on braids.
She also creates embroideries on found paper napkins, I love seeing the pattern and embossment on the paper napkin.
You can see videos of her performances and many many more works from her archives at her website here.
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2 comments:
wow another great find, those bonnets look so pretty, then you realise what they are. (still beautiful even when you do!)
the contrast is indeed surprising and powerful.
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