Allyship and Intersectional Tactics in Feminist Art

Embroidery is still considered a domestic craft done primarily by women. It carries a lot of unfair stereotypes regarding domesticity and femininity, which has a big impact on the roles and identities of women (and therefore, on anyone else too). As an artistic medium, it has been present in all cultures across the world throughout human history too. Despite that, if you go to any major craft store and look at the embroidery kits consumers can buy, they almost exclusively promote white, Western, conservative, Christian narratives and motifs that reinforce embroidery’s historical stereotypes. Katrina Majkut will share activist, feminist, and allyship tactics used in designing her collaborative art project Stitch Bitch Subversives DIY Embroidery Kits. The art project teams up with artists to subvert both the inherent bias in mass-produced embroidery products and intangible tools of oppression. Majkut will present how she helps artists to uniquely use satire to confront stereotypes, raise social awareness but simultaneously offer catharsis and camaraderie. Majkut will address the kits’ intersectional strategies that help convert a once repressive medium into a more inclusive and accessible platform for diversity, democracy, protest, positivity, and healing. Majkut will also discuss using fairer fiscal and recognition art practices that help counter colonialist practices in the art world.