The eastern textile principle of “phulkari” was introduced to me during a gallery talk with the artist Jenny Mullins last year.

The principle indicates that some mistakes in various textile patterns (mostly wedding apparel) are voluntarily introduced into the embroidery work in
order to protect a bride from the evil eye (”nazar”). Indeed a perfect piece could have attracted others’ jealousy.

I thought about this as I admired the tile work in a restaurant bathroom a few months ago. In a digital world which demands perfection, it’s very humbling to acknowledge and embrace illustrious imperfection.

“In Country” is the result of five years’ work by Ms. Karady, who interviewed dozens of veterans and asked them to talk about their most traumatic war moments. She then overlaid those memories onto their present-day lives, in the suburbs, back at school and, in one case, on the streets.

Ms. Karady, 43, described a process that she called equal parts journalism and psychotherapy. “This thing is replaying visually in the person’s head, and we really have no idea what is going on,” she said. “But the idea, conceptually, of taking that moment and recontextualizing and placing it in the civilian world, is based on a therapeutic model.”

Jeff Wall meets Martha Rosler. I love these and wish I could fly to San Fran for the day to take a look in person.

read more here

Sarada and Jessica came by to make the first marks on the quilt last Sunday. Very fun process and always good conversation.

Collaboration with Jen Gin for Baltidelphia!