Among the thousands of books and publications in the TRC library (see our on-line catalogue here) is a copy of the classic The Subversive Stitch: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine by Rozsika Parker.
This 1984 study helped redefine how many people looked at needlework. The book traced how embroidery changed from a respected, well-paid male endeavour into an often mocked or ignored female ‘hobby’. It also explored how women subverted embroidery to tell their own powerful stories on their own terms.
I immediately thought of this book when I saw some of the embroidery of Rufina Bazlova. Bazlova is a Belarussian artist who studied illustration in the Czech Republic. She continues to live in Prague, where she watches the protests in Belarus against the alleged election fraud of President Lukashenko. In an interview with The Moscow Times, Bazlova, who had previously embroidered a comics series, said she was moved to tell the story of the protests through the traditional skill of embroidery: "This year's national awakening simply demanded this technique of national embroidery. The events of the past months represent a portion of our great history, Belarus changed, woke up, big changes are coming that must be written into the code of embroidery."
T-shirt with a print of an embroidery by Rufina Bazlova, referring to the civil unrest in Belorussia, 2020 (TRC 2020.4207).
Traditional Belarussian embroidery uses counted thread techniques, such as cross stitch, frequently in red thread against a white ground. These colours became incorporated in the 1918 flag of an independent Belarus, which featured a red horizontal band between two white bands. Independence was short lived, however, and Belarus became incorporated into the Soviet Union. The post-Soviet flag features a vertical strip of traditional embroidery, plus two bands of green and red. Protestors frequently dress in red and white and carry the older flag of an independent Belarus.
Bazlova, whose protest embroidery has become popular on Instagram, stitches scenes of peaceful demonstrations; of riot police, with vans and water cannon, confronting protestors; and a series on President Lukashenko turning into a cockroach. She reproduces her embroideries on T-shirts, which she sells to raise money to help some of the estimated 6,000 imprisoned protestors.
The TRC was recently donated one of her T-shirts (TRC 2020.4207), which depicts a crowd of protestors facing a large police force. A lone figure stands in the middle. This illustration commemorates the first casualty of Belarus’s civil unrest—a young man whom police say was holding a bomb, but whom demonstrators say was killed by a police stun grenade. Subversive stitching indeed. More of Bezlova’s embroideries can be seen here.
By Shelley Anderson, 25 October 2020
