DINA RONČEVIĆ : EMBROIDERY

I REALLY DON´T LIKE IT HERE

Material : Sponge, textile, buttons, threads, wool and pink bow on canvas

Dimensions:

I really don´t like it here was made for State a bed exhibition, curated by Natasha Kadin, relating to ways the state interferes into our private lives.

This work consists of ovaries and uterus made of sponge and dressed in lovely, pink fabric, displayed on framed canvas. The ovaries are tied together with a large decorative bow, which is a reference to the Croatian law limiting the rights of women in decisions concerning their bodies. If you are a woman under 35 who has not given birth yet, you cannot undergo tubal ligation! The fact that reproductive choice is controlled by the state and not the woman, is a violent intrusion of the nation(al(ity)) into the space of personal freedom. The state thus becomes a religious-nationalistic rapist and (how about that!) a would-be parent as well.

FOUR STROKE - HANDWORK

2011
Embroidery, textile collage and drawing on twill canvas
60x80cm

Embroidery use to be a fun and lovely way to spend days for women, because they had time, concerning they weren't allowed to work or to go to bars, as man did. So they stayed home, stitching flowers, animals or other decorative motives.

You could always do mechanics as a job, which is not the case with embroidery.

It didn´t stand a chance for becoming a proper vocation, so it remained a knowledge transferred from mothers to daughters.

I think each woman should decorate her home or work place walls with embroidery showing a diagram of a four stroke engine, used in automotive industry, which is one of the world’s largest and four stroke being most commonly used machine.