Sewing circle

>> Diyan Achjadi picks up the thread of her
feminist foremothers

by SHOLEM KRISHTALKA

JFor those who didn’t catch her show Guise at the Articule gallery, Diyan Achjadi’s work can be described as very political, dealing with gender roles and power structures; at its essence, it is a tight examination of woman’s place in society. Achjadi takes her cue from “those ’70s feminist artists who used embroidery and craft, who talked about labour associated with women,” as well as contemporary artists like Mona Hatoum and Adrian Piper.
But Guise was not Achjadi’s first show—she has already exhibited in New York as well as Ottawa. While she has no new exhibitions on the schedule so far, she’s starting a Web-related project in co-ordination with Studio XX. Her art maintains a certain labour intensity in its use of embroidery to subvert notions of femininity and gentility.

Thankfully, it manages to never be didactic and, if not tempered with a little bit of wry humour, is always irresistibly humanizing. :