CHROME WON'T GET YOU HOME, 2022 (left)

CORNBREAD CASINO, 2022 (right)

cotton, satin, latex, rhinestones, glass beads, sequins, acrylic 

30in x 40in

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Historically, quilt making is practiced almost exclusively by women who generally purchase and follow mass produced, prepared designs that are themselves often copies. Although labor intensive and highly skilled, this type of artistic appropriation is dismissed as uncreative, derivative and a display of craftsmanship as an end in itself.  The methodical, repetitive and physical act of sewing in this way signifies the body as machine performing the same action over. To be automated, in this sense, is to be kitsch. This machine-like means of production is what Barbro is interested in. The subversive history of sewing and needlework intertwined with its systematic production presents two forms of labor — artistic and domestic.