NEW YORK, BALIPOST.com – “Drain the swamp.” “Such a nasty woman.” “Crooked Hillary.” An American artist has found a novel way to record President Donald Trump’s most outlandish comments for posterity: through embroidery.
Diana Weymar is inspiring hundreds of women from around the world to channel their feelings toward Trump by sewing quotes of his into old textiles, including doilies, baby bibs and even underwear.
The result is the “Tiny Pricks Project,” a 900-strong collection of colorful needlework pieces featuring Trumpisms, many of which are currently on display at an exhibition in New York.
“This is a creative way of dealing with the madness, which I think is hard to find,” Weymar, 50, tells AFP.
“I think a lot about this project as pricking your conscience,” she says, explaining the title. “And of course there’s a reference to other kinds of pricks, umm other meanings,” Weymar adds, laughing.
It all started in January last year when she stitched “I am a very stable genius” onto an old cloth of her grandmother’s and posted it on Instagram.
Weymar received an overwhelming response, so she started to sew one or two a week but quickly found that she couldn’t keep up with the rate at which Trump delivered outrageous statements.
She held workshops and invited other stitchers to send her their attempts. Weymar has completed around 450 items herself and received the same number again, including from France, Britain and Australia.
For many of the participants, all of which have been opponents of Trump, it is a cathartic process and a way to protest.
“It does inspire me to want to do it because, you know, you feel so helpless and frustrated at the current state of the nation,” Rebecca Gerstung, a visitor to the exhibition, tells AFP.
It’s “putting something terrible into something beautiful and using the needle to stab probably helps the anger!” the 45-year-old adds. (AFP)
