Queen Stitch QR South Yorkshire, United Kingdom

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I am a subversive stitch artist. I create wearable QR cross stitch badges that you can scan.

Biography

I have a degree in Fine Art from Sheffield Hallam University. I worked as a professional actor until 1998 when I developed a severe mental illness & had to re-evaluate my life & work. I consider myself a product of Thatcher’s Britain. As a survivor of domestic violence, the benefits system, poverty, poor mental health, sexual trauma and misogyny, I have found peace, understanding and safety in feminist literature, feminist and political activism, and women-only spaces.

Artist statement

I am an outsider textile artist specialising in subversive cross stitch. I also experiment with digital collage.

I produce hand stitched QR codes that, once scanned, will reveal an anti-authoritarian message in the form of an image file. This may be a rude word, an insult or a political or feminist statement. I offer an interactive experience to provoke an authentic, emotive reaction in my audience. My work intersects textile art with technology to expose a culture of social, political and sexual imbalance. I use the traditional medium of embroidery, demeaned as “women’s work”, to redress these imbalances.

Each QR code is hand stitched on plastic canvas and backed with felt. A safety pin sewn onto the back makes the code wearable as a badge. Using a QR code scanner (most mobile phones now have one built in as a feature) you can scan the code. QR code badges are quick and easy to make with completion achieved within the space of 2-3 hours. I also offer framed codes in a variety of sizes for wall hanging.

In addition to embroidery, I create collage art to refresh myself creatively when I need a break from intensive periods of stitching and pattern design. The medium perfectly suits my concerns as an artist which is to subvert social, political and sexual inequalities as they are expressed culturally and experienced personally. The experimental combination of pure imagery from adverts, magazines, TV, film, newspapers, books and art challenges an audience to think differently about the world they live in and offers a new, original visual language. I strive to make the ultimate pure image: an image made up of components of other images that does not need words to explain its meaning. I like to think that I’m providing a cultural kick in the pants to my audience when I begin a collage piece.

I have an online shop where my audience can buy my work and a blog explaining more about my process and what inspires me.

http://www.queenstitchqr.uk

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/QueenStitchQR/