Farnsworth House

Re-Stitched Series

Long stitch embroidery was very popular in the 1980's. My Mum, Grandma and Aunty were into it in a big way and so were all my friends' mums too. You can still visit people's houses today and see long stitch embroideries hanging on the walls – almost all of them depicting quaint cottages and whimsical homesteads in lush gardens and idyllic semi-rural settings.

To me, this unique form of embroidery is a fascinating social record; an important historical document of our ideas and ideals of home (and by extension ourselves according Jungian psychology).

Using long stitch embroideries found at op-shops and donated by friends and family, I unpick the original storybook cottages and homesteads and replace them with alternative archetypes of home that challenge traditional notions of home and who we are. For example, the very popular long stitch embroidery of Cook's cottage was carefully unpicked and re-stitched with the Rose Seidler House in its place. And an old country homestead with smoke wafting from the chimney was unpicked and replaced with the Farnsworth House. In this way, the Re-Stitched embroidery series can be understood as redevelopments or renovations of our desires, aspirations and dreams.

Matt de Moiser 2015

Glossary

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