ARTIST STATEMENT
“Stepping on Apron Strings” is a collection of aprons made from photographs printed on fabric and sewn into domestic garments worn for work. Aprons are soft, utilitarian objects that are bound to the body by strings that restrain the wearer to the expectation of the feminine ideal. By stepping on apron strings we prevent forward motion towards autonomy. There is a dangerous movement backward towards traditional expectations of women and although there’s beauty in domestic tradition, the apron strings can be binding. However aesthetically appealing and rewarding the patriarchy wants domestic and traditionally feminine work to appear, the true intentions of these movements are based in the desire to control women. The utility of women through this perspective has a shelf life, and the value of women is degraded even more with diminishing youth and fertility. The photograph included in “Apron #3” illustrates a domestic scene with imagery of Our Lady of Czestochowa, a Polish Catholic icon, an expression of the virginal archetype and the unattainable feminine ideal. “Stepping on Apron Strings” is an ongoing project as threats to women’s autonomy continue to increase.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sylvie Harris’s work combines photographs and textiles into domestic garments that address the burden of the unachievable feminine ideal. Harris graduated in 2022 with an MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago where she was also a Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Photography and the recipient of the 2021 Stuart Abelson Graduate Research Fellowship in Krakow, Poland. Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions including at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas, Foreman Gallery at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York and All Street Gallery in New York, New York, among others. Harris’s recent solo exhibitions include “The Ancestry of Home” at Arcade Gallery in Chicago, Illinois, “Lineage of Labor” at Swartley Gallery at Dwight Englewood School in Englewood, New Jersey and “Labor” at Korn Gallery at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Harris was born in 1993 in Chicago, Illinois, raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
© Sylvie Harris