ARTIST STATEMENT
This work is part of a series of crocheted jumpers that hang from children’s hangers, invoking innocence while confronting the early inheritance of gendered language. Each jumper stages a linguistic conflict. On the front, words historically used to discipline or diminish (whore, bitch, bully) and on the back, their socially sanctioned counterparts or exposed contradictions. Player, boss, or coward, the unspoken truth beneath aggression.
The work traces how language becomes a political weapon, shaped by patriarchy to regulate women’s bodies, ambition, and power, while elevating similar behaviors in men. In a time of social unrest, these pieces function as quiet acts of dissent, asking viewers to confront how words enforce hierarchy, normalize inequality, and embed political struggle into everyday life, beginning in childhood.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Denise Yaghmourian is a fiber artist creating abstract works using fabric, thread, and unconventional materials such as hook and eye tape—typically used in bra and corset making. Her work features expansive fields of color layered with intricate stitching, exploring themes of repetition, structure, and the beauty found in everyday materials. Yaghmourian moved to Arizona at the age of 8 and grew up in Phoenix. She spent most of her childhood years swimming in the family pool, exploring the desert environments with friends. and spending time sewing and crocheting with her Armenian Grandmother.
She earned her BFA from Arizona State University, in Tempe, Arizona, in studio art and art education. Yaghmourian has participated in national and international exhibitions including Tucson Museum of Art (permanent collection), Visions Textile Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, Udinotti Museum, and Kent State Art Museum.
© Denise Yaghmourian