CREWEL LINEN: UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
Photo by Bruce Paul Fink.
Crewel Linen: Unfinished Business is a work in memory of 146 individuals who died tragically—and unnecessarily—during the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City in 1911. It provides an experiential analogy for the sacrifices made and struggles undertaken by individuals and organized labor to establish workplace safety and worker dignity as fundamental human rights. Premiering as a centennial+ installation (December 2011 through March 25, 2012 at West Cove Gallery, West Haven, CT), collaboration serves a core function as Crewel Linen: Unfinished Business persists into it's second century.
Centennial 2011
The viewer experiences Crewel Linen: Unfinished Business as 146 flowing lengths (8’L x 20”W) of sheer white (shirtwaist) cloth. Hung from overhead, each is given space enough between it and the next to sway as a breeze or a person moves around it. Each takes on a figurative quality; light (natural and directed) picks up movement as shadows, and the collective effect of 146 lengths of flowing cloth is like ghostly apparitions in quiet but moving solidarity. A narrow band of crewel linen (20”W x 6”H), placed low on each shirtwaist cloth, adds weight. Each band of linen, slightly darker in color, holds as central the name of a single victim of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, embroidered (whipped backstitch) with silk threads in cursive lettering: in essence, a signature, yet an identity outlined only, unfinished.
Centennial 2011
The viewer experiences Crewel Linen: Unfinished Business as 146 flowing lengths (8’L x 20”W) of sheer white (shirtwaist) cloth. Hung from overhead, each is given space enough between it and the next to sway as a breeze or a person moves around it. Each takes on a figurative quality; light (natural and directed) picks up movement as shadows, and the collective effect of 146 lengths of flowing cloth is like ghostly apparitions in quiet but moving solidarity. A narrow band of crewel linen (20”W x 6”H), placed low on each shirtwaist cloth, adds weight. Each band of linen, slightly darker in color, holds as central the name of a single victim of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, embroidered (whipped backstitch) with silk threads in cursive lettering: in essence, a signature, yet an identity outlined only, unfinished.
A Collaborative Journey: 2012+
Dialogue with local/regional/national stitchers and member organizations,such as the Embroidery Guild of America (EGA), the American Needlepoint Guild (ANG) and the Sampler Guilds serves as a first step in arranging an installation. Crewel Linen: Unfinished Business focuses on collaborative/collective effort, education and awareness at multiple levels.
While each victim’s name is known perhaps solely due to having been killed in relation to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy (See archives at Kheel Center http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/victimsWitnesses/victimsList.html), each crewel linen signature panel (basted, pinned, or tacked so as to be detachable from the shirtwaist cloth) serves as an invitation to a stitcher today research a single name and embroider on a signature panel his or her findings. Countries of origin, dates of immigration, and/or other poignant information (one victim’s life savings, for example, $800, were found stuffed into her sock. Another had literally “just gotten off the boat” only several days prior to the fire) may all be starting or end points of research.
While each victim’s name is known perhaps solely due to having been killed in relation to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy (See archives at Kheel Center http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/victimsWitnesses/victimsList.html), each crewel linen signature panel (basted, pinned, or tacked so as to be detachable from the shirtwaist cloth) serves as an invitation to a stitcher today research a single name and embroider on a signature panel his or her findings. Countries of origin, dates of immigration, and/or other poignant information (one victim’s life savings, for example, $800, were found stuffed into her sock. Another had literally “just gotten off the boat” only several days prior to the fire) may all be starting or end points of research.
Rosie Brenman's was the first signature panel embroidered in the construction of Crewel Linen: Unfinished Business. Her's also the first to have received a collaborator’s touch. Debbie Altschwager embroidered a border of tiny roses around all four sides of the linen panel. Afterward, while rethinking Rosie Brenman, a 23 year old Russian-born immigrant who had been in the U.S. for 5 years, Debbie removed every stitch of the dainty border. “It was all wrong,” she said. She stitched instead a larger, single rose, intertwining its green stem with the R in Rosie’s name. “The more I learned about Rosie Brenman, the more she struck me not as little or delicate but as courageous and determined. It was important to me to reflect that.”
For information on how to collaborate in the ongoing construction of Crewel Linen: Unfinished Business, or to plan a collaborative installation in your region, contact Cate Bourke at [email protected]. ABOUT THE ARTIST Cate Bourke holds a BA in English from Trinity College, Hartford. and an MFA in Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Art, Montpelier. Of her shirtwaist connections, she writes: "At the turn of the 20th century, my great aunts Margaret, Bessie, Josephine and Catherine Bourke brought one sister after another from Ireland to the U.S., each in her turn working as dressmakers to fund the emi/immi gration of the next sister. Margaret Bourke's daughter Mary taught me to sew. More recently Sarah and Rosie Brenman of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fostered me in the whipped backstitch." Support for Crewel Linen: Unfinished Business
Critical collaborative, in-kind, instructive, inspirational and financial support for Crewel Linen: Unfinished Business ihas been provided through the generosity of individuals and organizations including Debbie, Altschwager, Maegn Boone, Peggy Buchanan, Robert Cowles,, Bruce Paul Fink, Joelle Fishman, Glorianna Threads, Winston Heimer, The Kheel Center (Cornell University), Stephen Kobasa, Alesia Leduc, Gwen Mills, Lee W. Patterson, Red Barn Rugs, Gale Rugh, Paula Saaf, Lyn Shaw, Fern Strong, Thistle Needleworks, UNITE HERE International Union and the women, girls and men of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. |
Work In Progress:
|