dancing death with interchangeable heads (elvis, god, terror, Diana)

16 April - 28 August 2011

Photo Credit: image courtesy of the artist

Artist’s Statement:

Rugs have a tradition of representing heroes from pop culture. This rug represents Death dancing with a set of interchangeable heads. The heads are Diana, God, Terror and Elvis, pop culture icons that refuse to die.

Andrea du Chatenier 2010

In the world of fine art, textiles have always tended to be sneered at by the academy as craft.  Knitting, weaving, sewing, cross-stitch, pottery and so on have only been considered ‘art’ since artists like Josef Beuys made works with felt blankets and the likes of Marcel Duchamp made everyday objects in to ‘art objects’

Andrea du Chatenier’s use of hand-crafted rugs draws attention to wool outside its usual use as an insulating material.
Wool becomes a metaphorical barrier to the wider world.

Wool as the main material used in this work, becomes a champion of the everyday-down-home, oft-times, European craftswoman, to grandmotherly home made blankets, doilies and garments. They speak of a time in when things were simple and conversations might have been about a secret scone-making tip, giving birth or possibly about the children. Du Chatenier turns these pieces of wool in to renegades, talking about more than keeping the kids warm.  Instead, she talks about a (woman’s) world informed by media and international news: life and death, spirituality, terrorism, music heroes, and the royal family.