rachel dove
rachel's process of art making exists subversively in the world of fine art by the union of sewing crafts and painting. she integrates the contrasting history of domestic crafts by juxtaposing their informal qualities with the highly informal qualities of fine art. through these culturally vast opposing territories of art making, she questions the predestined conditions of hobby crafts and the autocratic antiquity of painting.
in her work, the graphic floral patterns from popular culture are used as ready made mark making guides throughout the work. she uses generic and clichÈ patterns to remind the viewer of the subject matter from which painting arose, such as floral still life and japanese prints. the ornate adornment of pattern is also established by assembling and replacing historical patterns of the renaissance, baroque, and rococo periods with cheap contemporary patterns. sheís used various meshes found in sewing kits, such as needlepoint and latch-hook, in place of the traditional canvas, which functions as an ironic model for paint to exist. the paint exuded from the back of the mesh by hand, or interlaced onto the latch-hook grid, represents the domestic activities of sewing, or weaving. this converges against the traditional patriarchal structures of painting, speaking metaphorically about the condition of women artists throughout history, and the cultural divide between domestic crafts and fine art. she thinks her work as a whole composes singular marks towards an obsessive unity that transcends various classifications of genres.
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